System and method for operating ground-source heat pumps

A method of operating a ground-source heat pump, comprising:

• generating a thermal power based on a thermal communication of the ground-source heat pump with a borefield, the thermal power at least partly covering a thermal load of a facility;
• providing a forward model of the borefield based on initial borefield parameters;
• generating predicted thermal values based on the forward model, the predicted thermal values including a temperature associated with the borefield, wherein the temperature is a minimum borefield temperature at any location in the borefield;
• developing an inverted model of the borefield based on the forward model;
• measuring actual thermal values of the borefield based on sensor data;
• comparing the actual thermal values to the predicted thermal values using the inverted model to determine thermal target differences;
• iteratively adjusting the initial borefield parameters using the inverted model based on the thermal target differences to iteratively update the forward model;
• controlling the thermal power based on the minimum borefield temperature;
• and
• maintaining the minimum borefield temperature within a temperature range defined in relationship to one or more temperature thresholds based on controlling the thermal power, wherein the ground-source heat pump is configured to cause the minimum borefield temperature to fall outside of the temperature range at a full capacity of the thermal power,
• wherein controlling the thermal power includes keeping the ground-source heat pump in an on state and running the ground-source heat pump at less than the full capacity of the thermal power when the temperature reaches one of the one or more temperature thresholds.