Model predictive control of solar-coupled innovative heat pump: a comparison of economic and environmental optimizations in Latvia

Abstract

Background Heating and cooling in buildings represents a significant amount of the energy demand in the EU, but the market penetration of renewable solutions is still marginal. The SunHorizon project aims at proving the viability and benefits of innovative coupling between heat pumps and various advanced solar panels. Methods This study focuses on the optimal operation strategies of a technological package located in Latvia, and composed of hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) panels, a gas driven heat pump and a hot water storage tank. In this work, a model predictive control is developed, based on mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization. This model uses innovative elements compared to traditional model predictive control (MPC), with environmental indicators for the Latvian electricity grid accounting for imports, co-simulation with TRNSYS using the transmission control protocol (TCP) and modelling of long-term storage for long and short-term decisions. The usual minimization of costs is compared to two new optimization approaches, which aim to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or maximize renewable use and self-consumption. Results and conclusions The results of the optimization of costs and GHG emissions show that gains can be found within the variations in time series related to the electricity grid, but the overall operation strategies remain similar. Optimization of renewable share and self-consumption is another path for control strategy, but with less economic and environmental performance.