Predictive Alert System for Building Energy Management

Abstract

A system for managing energy use of buildings and the like uses predicted meteorological data, for example from weather forecasts, applied to models of the energy systems of the building to predict future energy use and costs. This predicted information is used to produce automatic alerts allowing future energy use to guide current changes to reduce energy.

What we claim is: 
     
         1 . A building energy system comprising:
 a building including a ventilation system communicating with heat exchangers for controlling the temperature of circulated air in the ventilation systems;   a series of sensors providing first to data inputs of real-time measurements of the ventilation system providing parameters of the building energy system;   an electronic computer communicating with the series of sensors and executing a program stored in a non-transient medium to:   (a) receive first data inputs of real-time measured parameters of the energy systems;   (b) receive second data inputs of current and predicted local meteorological information;   (c) apply predicted local meteorological information and real-time measured parameters of the first and second inputs to a model of the energy system to produce predicted parameters of the energy system;   (d) apply the predicted and measured parameters to alert rules to generate alerts related to future avoidable energy cost increases, and   (e) output the alerts providing information indicating a future avoidable cost increase and a prediction time associated with a predicted time of the future avoidable energy cost increase.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the information indicating a future avoidable cost increase is a maximum for a current day expressed in at least one of plant tonnage and plant efficiency. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the model consists of historical operating data of the energy system providing a functional relationship between meteorological data and energy usage. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the model includes at least two submodels, a first submodel relating meteorological data to output of the energy system and the second submodel relating output of the energy system to energy use of the energy system and wherein each model is obtained by a regression fit to historical data. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4  wherein the first submodel provides an output of cooling tons and the second submodel provides an output of power usage. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 3  wherein the model further includes operating rules describing a selection among different of corresponding submodels associated with different configurations of the energy system based on the meteorological data and reflecting expected different configurations of the energy system in response to different meteorological conditions. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 6  wherein the operating rules change submodels according to different ranges of meteorological data. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the electronic computer further executes the program to output to a user the predicted measured parameters based on different operating rules to provide a comparison of future performance under different operating rules. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the electronic computer further executes the program to compare predictions of the model to later actual measurements of the energy system and to provide at least one of an alert indicating disparity between the predictions and the actual measurements, a selection of a different model, and a cumulative ranking of models. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein execution of the program further corrects the predicted local meteorological, information based on previous comparisons of previous predicted local meteorological information and actual meteorological information at a time indicated by the previous predicted local meteorological information. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the electronic computer further executes the program to repeatedly apply the predicted local meteorological information and real-time measured parameters of the first and second inputs to the model to produce new predicted measured parameters of the energy system at multiple times throughout a day. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the electronic computer further executes the program to monitor the real-time measured parameters for error selected from the group consisting of sensor data that is missing, sensor data that is unvarying and, sensor data that is out of range to provide an alert of such error. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the alerts indicate a projected change in energy cost categories according to a utility rate table. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the alerts include cost values indicating a cost significance of the alert based on a utility rate table. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the electronic computer further executes the stored program to output to a user the predicted measured parameters. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15  wherein the electronic computer further executes the program to apply predicted local meteorological information to a second model of the energy system to produce predicted electrical and steam cogeneration wherein the output from the second model provides an input to the first model. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the local meteorological data is selected from the group consisting of wet bulb temperature of air outside of a structure serviced by the energy system. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the real-time measured parameters are selected from the group consisting of cooling system output tonnage, electrical power usage, and activation of particular energy system components. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the model of the energy system is selected from the group consisting of models of energy systems of furnaces, boilers, air-conditioning units, water chillers, cogeneration facilities and combinations of these energy systems. 
     
     
         20 . A method of assisting in a management of energy systems for plants and the like comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving first data inputs providing real-time measured parameters of the energy systems:   (b) receiving second data inputs providing predicted local meteorological information;   (c) applying predicted local meteorological information and real-time measured parameters of the first and second inputs to a model of the energy system to produce predicted measured parameters of the energy system;   (d) applying the predicted measured parameters to alert rules to generate alerts related to future avoidable energy cost increases; and   (e) outputting the alerts providing an indication of future avoidable cost increase and a prediction time associated with a predicted time of the future avoidable energy cost increase.