Model predictive control for flexible power consumption of large-scale refrigeration systems

A model predictive control (MPC) scheme is introduced to directly control the electrical power consumption of large-scale refrigeration systems. Deviation from the baseline of the consumption is corresponded to the storing and delivering of thermal energy. By virtue of such correspondence, the control method can be employed for regulating power services in the smart grid. The proposed scheme contains the control of cooling capacity as well as optimizing the efficiency factor of the system, which is in general a nonconvex optimization problem. By introducing a fictitious manipulated variable, and novel incorporation of the evaporation temperature set-point into optimization problem, the convex optimization problem is formulated within the MPC scheme. The method is applied to a simulation benchmark of large-scale refrigeration systems including several medium and low temperature cold reservoirs.