2018 Volume 43 Issue 260 Pages 23-30
Real-time pricing is a feature of demand response schemes for future smart grids. From the demand side, the coordination of load management conforming to rapid power price changes is necessary. Studies on building multi-type air-conditioners are finding ways to predictively suppress power during high-priced time zones based on advance charge information. Thus far, methods of suppressing the operation or the pre-cooling operation in outdoor unit blocks have been proposed based on the comfort priority of each air-conditioning area. Here, we propose a new area priority prediction control that can define a complex area priority over multiple outdoor unit blocks, and show the degree of improvement by experiment and simulation. This study attempts to optimize a number of multi-unit-type air-conditioning facilities installed in an office building using a complex evaluation function that incorporates the power cost, room temperature comfort, and total power consumption. Because an experiment lacks reproducibility, simulation experiments with different electricity pricing patterns are carried out. An original air-conditioner emulation model is developed and used to conduct the simulation experiments.
