A load shifting controller for Cold Thermal Energy Storage systems

A method for controlling the generation of ice for Cold Thermal Energy Storage (CTES) is presented in this paper. A load shifting controller is developed to find the optimum trajectory for CTES in a dynamic environment. The variation in ice building efficiency due to the nonlinear relationship between changing ambient air temperature and ice charge level is accommodated by employing dynamic programming in a three dimensional space. The combined system learns from its errors and adapts during simulation. The optimum ice building trajectory is progressively updated as new information comes online. The energy saving performance of the controller is assessed using a simple optimization index.