Design and application of mixed-integer nonlinear model predictive control in residential buildings

In this work, we present a building energy management system based on a specifically designed mixed-integer nonlinear model predictive control (MINMPC) strategy. Applied to a multifamily residential building, we first assess the potential of the developed solution in a detailed simulation study and later address its real-world deployment on a programmable logic controller (PLC). We show that our strategy successfully follows the complex system constraints, such as the minimum admissible operating time of the system components, without compromising the residents’ comfort. The performance of the approach is evaluated in direct comparison with an enhanced rule-based conventional control strategy. We accomplish an overall 24.5% reduction in total energy costs and stable real-time operation of the hardware controller.