Thermal energy production, storage, and control system with heat recovery chillers

A method for operating a thermal energy production and control system, the method comprising:

• obtaining thermal energy load targets comprising amounts of hot thermal energy or cold thermal energy required by one or more resource sinks at a plurality of time steps of a time period;
• using the thermal energy load targets to generate control decisions for a heat recovery chiller and thermal energy storage for the plurality of time steps, the control decisions comprising:
• an asset size target for a new heat recovery chiller or a new thermal energy storage to be added to the thermal energy production and control system;
• a first amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be generated by the heat recovery chiller at a first time step of the time period and stored in the thermal energy storage;
• a second amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be discharged from the thermal energy storage and used to satisfy one or more of the thermal energy load targets for a second time step of the time period, the second amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy comprising some or all of the first amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy;
• and
• a third amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be generated by the new heat recovery chiller or to be discharged from the new thermal energy storage;
• and
• acquiring and installing the new heat recovery chiller or the new thermal energy storage based on the asset size target.

A controller for a thermal energy production and control system, the controller comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining an objective function defining a control objective as a function of control decisions for a heat recovery chiller and thermal energy storage at a plurality of time steps of a time period;
• obtaining thermal energy load targets comprising amounts of hot thermal energy or cold thermal energy required by one or more resource sinks at the plurality of time steps;
• performing an optimization of the objective function using the thermal energy load targets as constraints on the optimization to generate the control decisions for the heat recovery chiller and the thermal energy storage, the control decisions comprising:
• an asset size target for a new heat recovery chiller or a new thermal energy storage to be added to the thermal energy production and control system;
• and
• a first amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be generated by the heat recovery chiller at a first time step of the time period and stored in the thermal energy storage;
• a second amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be discharged from the thermal energy storage and used to satisfy one or more of the thermal energy load targets for a second time step of the time period, the second amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy comprising some or all of the first amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy;
• and
• a third amount of the hot thermal energy or the cold thermal energy to be generated by the new heat recovery chiller or to be discharged from the new thermal energy storage;
• and
• operating the heat recovery chiller or the thermal energy storage in accordance with the control decisions.