PNNL

Abstract

Advanced controls play an essential role towards the improvement of building operational efficiency and the integration of responsive loads in buildings for grid services. Ideally, control algorithms must be sufficiently tested and validated before they are applied on real systems. This paper presents the development and current state of such an evolving test bed to support and enable experiments on advanced controls for buildings. The test bed presented in this paper consists of 9 operating buildings—which possess various types of equipment and systems having different control systems, and communication mechanisms (e.g., media and protocols) used in building automation systems—on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus. The test bed architecture is developed in such a way that 1) it supports interactions among the buildings and heterogeneous building components and systems, including both virtual and physical devices, e.g., HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) and lighting systems; 2) it can be easily reconfigured for different control topologies and methodologies, e.g., centralized and distributed; 3) it allows selection of communication protocols, communication media, and computation resources; and 4) it is part of a larger cyber-physical test bed that includes both physical and virtual assets on distributed renewable generation, energy storage, and power system assets.