Robust co-design framework for buildings operated by predictive control

Cost-effective decarbonisation of the built environment is a stepping stone to achieving net-zero carbon emissions since buildings are globally responsible for more than a quarter of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Improving energy utilization and decreasing costs naturally requires considering multiple domain-specific performance criteria. The resulting problem is often computationally infeasible.

The paper proposes an approach based on decomposition and selection of significant operating conditions to achieve a formulation with reduced computational complexity.
We present a robust framework to optimise the physical design, the controller, and the operation of residential buildings in an integrated fashion, considering external weather conditions and time-varying electricity prices. The framework explicitly includes operational constraints and increases the utilization of the energy generated by intermittent resources.

A case study illustrates the potential of co-design in enhancing the reliability, flexibility and self-sufficiency of a system operating under different conditions. Specifically, numerical results demonstrate reductions in costs up to 30% compared to a deterministic formulation. Furthermore, the proposed approach achieves a computational time reduction at least 10 times lower compared to the original problem with a deterioration in the performance of only 0.6%.