A holistic framework for energy saving, schedulable potential quantification, and external characteristic modeling in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems

With the accelerating integration of renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage systems, enhancing the flexibility and efficiency of building energy systems has become pivotal for advancing demand-side management and grid stability. This study proposes a global optimization framework for integrated systems, encompassing components such as air handling units, chilled and cooling water pumps, water-cooled chillers, and cooling towers. High-accuracy models for chillers and cooling towers are employed within this framework, allowing the system to adapt to varying air conditions by adjusting air handling unit modes. This framework facilitates the determination of optimal control strategies and the quantification of the schedulable potential of the system. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed strategy achieves energy savings of 50.250% compared to traditional approaches and provides significant flexibility for the power system, with upward and downward schedulable potentials of 11.147 times and 23.577% of the minimum energy consumption, respectively. These findings offer valuable insights for demand response strategies. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the relationship between cooling load and energy consumption, an external characteristic model for optimal energy usage was established.