Incorporating a demand charge in central plant optimization

A method for incorporating a demand charge in an optimization process for a central plant, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a processing circuit of a central plant optimization system, load prediction data indicating building energy loads for a plurality of time steps in an optimization period and utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve the building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps;
• generating, by a high level optimization module of the central plant optimization system, an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over the optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps;
• modifying, by a demand charge module of the central plant optimization system, the objective function to account for a demand charge indicating a cost associated with a maximum power consumption during a demand charge period;
• and
• optimizing, by the high level optimization module, the objective function over the demand charge period subject to a set of constraints to determine an optimal distribution of the building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps.