A renewable heat plant Modelica library for dynamic optimization with Optimica

Abstract

Almost half of the energy consumed globally is under the form of heat, produced mainly through fossil fuels. Switching to using renewable energy instead is a real challenge. Combining renewable thermal energy with thermal storage is a complex system to operate. To harness the full potential of thermal plants, advanced control strategies need to be implemented. Dynamic real-time optimization (DRTO) seems promising to fine tune controller setpoints of plants. The goal of our study is to ultimately enable DRTO by using Optimica because of its ease of use and Modelica’s modularity. This paper presents a Modelica library developed to first perform offline dynamic optimization with Optimica, and would ultimately be used in a DRTO strategy. The library enables to model a renewable thermal plant composed of solar thermals, heat pumps and thermal storages. The model of each subcomponent has been validated. Initial dynamic optimizations of plant operation give promising results.