A Compressed Air Network Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Unit Commitment and Control

A two-layer hierarchical control scheme entirely based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) is proposed for the control of a compressed air network. The high-level exploits the air demand prediction and - through a hybrid MPC - defines the optimal unit commitment and compressor operating points, minimizing the network energy consumption over a long time horizon. At the low-level, compressors are controlled independently to track the references received from the upper layer in the presence of actuation constraints. The proposed control solution can be applied to different network configurations. Simulation results prove the capabilities of the strategy when compared to traditional techniques used nowadays in industry.