Simulation-based assessment on stochastic load scheduling for building cooling systems

To fill knowledge gaps related to stochastic load scheduling, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of the stochastic load scheduling for building cooling systems. Specifically, we studied the common uncertain variables in the load scheduling process for building cooling systems and categorized those variables based on their dynamic patterns. We then developed a generic stochastic load scheduling framework and applied it to building cooling systems that served a simulated community. This community consists of 100 heterogeneous houses and serves as a virtual testbed for evaluating the performance of stochastic load scheduling. In this evaluation, we considered representatives of uncertain variables with different dynamic patterns and included 100 realizations of the considered uncertainty in the evaluation to better catch the probability distribution of the control performance. The evaluation results suggest that deterministic load scheduling can reduce the operating energy cost by 18% but its performance can be affected by uncertainty. Stochastic load scheduling can further decrease the operating energy cost under uncertainty compared to deterministic load scheduling. We also found that the effectiveness of stochastic load scheduling in handling uncertainty is not directly associated with the number of uncertainty scenarios that are considered in its formulation.