High level central plant optimization

A controller for equipment that operate to provide heating or cooling to a building or campus, the controller comprising:

• a processing circuit configured to:
• obtain an objective function that expresses a control objective as a function of an amount of one or more input resources consumed by the equipment at each of a plurality of time steps of an optimization period;
• determine a relationship between (i) the amount of the one or more input resources consumed by the equipment and (ii) production variables representing amounts of one or more output resources produced by the equipment as a result of consuming the one or more input resources, wherein the production variables are based on the amount of the one or more input resources consumed by the equipment at each of the plurality of time steps;
• optimize the objective function over the optimization period to determine a distribution of production of the one or more output resources across the equipment at each of the plurality of time steps, wherein determining the distribution comprises determining values for the production variables;
• and
• operate the equipment to achieve the distribution at each of the plurality of time steps.

A method for operating equipment to provide heating or cooling to a building or campus, the method comprising:

• obtaining an objective function that expresses a control objective as a function of an amount of one or more input resources consumed by the equipment at each of a plurality of time steps of an optimization period;
• determining a relationship between (i) the amount of the one or more input resources consumed by the equipment and (ii) an amount of one or more output resources produced by the equipment as a result of consuming the one or more input resources;
• optimizing the objective function over the optimization period, and subject to a constraint based on the relationship, to determine a distribution of production of the one or more output resources across the equipment at each of the plurality of time steps;
• and
• operating the equipment to achieve the distribution at each of the plurality of time steps.