Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Mechanical control system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-29
2001-04-24
Lee, Thomas (Department: 2182)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Mechanical control system
C700S049000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223101
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a district heat supply plant controller for controlling operation of a district heat supply plant having a plurality of heat source devices and, more particularly, to a district heat supply plant controller capable of efficiently driving each of heat sources of a district heat supply plant.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large-scaled building or a block of buildings usually has a district heat supply plant for air conditioning of the entirety of the district. District heat supply plants are configured to prepare hot water and cold water by using heat pumps or other appropriate heat source devices, store them in heat storage tanks, and supply them to air conditioners or other thermal load devices whenever demanded. District heat supply plants using electric power as their power sources are configured to use night-time electric power or peak-cut driving for efficient operation, by generating and storing heat in the night, generating hot water and cold water and discharging the stored heat in the day time.
For efficiently driving a district supply plant in the aforementioned manner, one or more professional operators (plant operators) are indispensable. However, these professional operators are difficult to acquire and hold stably, and the personnel expenses for them are great. Therefore, unmanned driving is desired at least in the night, for example. Currently, a method for determining an operation plan of a district heat supply plant based on mathematical programming is typically used as a method for automatic operation reflecting operator's professional knowledge.
As explained above, district heat supply plants are automatically operated by obtaining their operation plans on the basis of a mathematical programming and by reflecting operator's professional knowledge. Mathematical programming, however, tries to strictly obtain an optimum solution, and often results in finding no practical solution or determining an inappropriate solution due to an inappropriate modeling. Therefore, it is difficult to realize completely unmanned operation by mathematical programming. Additionally, when a district heat supply plant is enlarged in scale, the amount of calculations for determining an operation plan increases, and it is difficult to determine the operation plan within a service time.
To overcome these defects of mathematical programming, researches and studies have been started recently on an approach for obtaining operation plans of various kinds of plants by using genetic algorithms to obtain quasi-optimum solutions in a short time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a district heat supply plant controller for controlling a district heat supply plant following to an operation plan obtained by genetic algorithms, which can obtain the operation plan efficiently and flexibly to enable efficient and reliable automatic operation of the district heat supply plant by less professional operators.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a district heat supply plant controller for controlling operation of a district heat supply plant having a plurality of heat source devices, comprising: storage means for storing past actual thermal load values of the district heat supply plant; prediction means for predicting a thermal load value of a current day with reference to the past actual thermal load values stored in the storage means; planning means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant on the basis of the thermal load value of the current day predicted by the prediction means, the planning means including genetic algorithm executing means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant by genetic algorithms minimizing objective functions about operation of the heat source devices, the genetic algorithm executing means applying genetic algorithms to an individual having rows of genes representing activated and stopped states for each predetermined time unit for each of the heat source device; and control means for controlling the heat source devices on the basis of the operation plan of the district heat supply plant determined by the planning means.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a district heat supply plant controller for controlling operation of a district heat supply plant having a plurality of heat source devices, comprising: storage means for storing past actual thermal load values of the district heat supply plant; prediction means for predicting a thermal load value of a current day with reference to the past actual thermal load values stored in the storage means; planning means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant on the basis of the thermal load value of the current day predicted by the prediction means, the planning means including genetic algorithm executing means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant by genetic algorithms minimizing objective functions about operation of the heat source devices, and mathematical programming executing means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant by mathematical programming, the mathematical programming executing means using the operation plan determined by the genetic algorithm executing means as an initial value to determine the operation plan of the district heat supply plant; and control means for controlling said heat source devices on the basis of the operation plan of the district heat supply plant determined by the planning means.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a district heat supply plant controller for controlling operation of a district heat supply plant having a plurality of heat source devices, comprising: storage means for storing past actual thermal load values of the district heat supply plant; prediction means for predicting a thermal load value of a current day with reference to the past actual thermal load values stored in the storage means; planning means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant on the basis of the thermal load value of the current day predicted by the prediction means, the planning means including genetic algorithm executing means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant by genetic algorithms minimizing objective functions about operation of the heat source devices, mathematical programming executing means for determining an operation plan of the district heat supply plant by mathematical programming, and selecting means for selecting one of the operation plan determined by the genetic algorithm executing means and the operation plan determined by the mathematical programming executing means; and control means for controlling the heat source devices on the basis of the operation plan of the district heat supply plant determined by the planning means.
The present invention can efficiently process rows of genes of each of heat source devices over a plurality of time zones because genetic algorithms are used for an individual having rows of genes representing activated and stopped states (1/0) in each predetermined unit time for each of heat source devices- Additionally, the present invention can quickly determine an optimal solution of the operation plan because the mathematical programming executing means determines the operation plan (optimum solution) by using as its initial value an operation plan (quasi-optimum solution) obtained by the genetic algorithm executing means. Moreover, the present invention can flexibly determined the operation plan, taking into consideration the strictness required for the solution, the time required for obtaining the solution, and so on, because the selecting means selects one of the operation plan obtained by the genetic algorithm executing means and the operation plan obtained by the mathematical programming executing m
Kobayashi Shuichiro
Sakamoto Yoshiyuki
Shinozaki Tsutomu
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Lee Thomas
Patel Nitin
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