Coalitional model predictive control of parabolic-trough solar collector fields with population-dynamics assistance

Ana Sánchez-Amores, Juan Martinez-Piazuelo, José M. Maestre, Carlos Ocampo-Martinez, Eduardo F. Camacho and Nicanor Quijano

Applied Energy, 2023, vol. 334, issue C, No S0306261923001046

Abstract: Parabolic-trough solar collector fields are large-scale systems, so the application of centralized optimization-based control methods to these systems is often not suitable for real-time control. As such, this paper formulates a novel coalitional control approach as an appropriate alternative to the centralized scheme. The key idea is to split the overall solar collector field into smaller subsystems, each of them governed by a local controller. Then, controllers are clustered into coalitions to solve a local optimization-based problem related to the corresponding subset of subsystems, so that an approximate solution of the original centralized problem can be obtained in a decentralized fashion. However, the operational constraints of the solar collector field couple the optimization problems of the multiple coalitions, thus limiting the ability to solve them in a fully decentralized manner. To overcome this issue, a novel population-dynamics-assisted resource allocation strategy is proposed as a mechanism to decouple the local optimization problems of the multiple coalitions. The proposed coalitional methodology allows to solve the multiple local subproblems in parallel, hence reducing the overall computational burden, while guaranteeing the satisfaction of the operational constraints and without significantly compromising the overall performance. The effectiveness of proposed approach is shown through numerical simulations of a 10- and 100-loop version of the ACUREX solar collector field of Plataforma Solar de Almería, Spain.

Keywords: Model predictive control; Coalitional control; Population dynamics; Distributed solar collector field (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923001046
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:334:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923001046

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120740

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().