Today, BMS and BAS setpoint configurations are typically setup at building design and rarely adjusted after the building comes online.
While some advanced BAS support demand limiting, these products don’t get used very often. Typically, demand limiting actions are triggered manually or tied to inputs from a municipal or power company, such as with Demand Response programs. Because these actions are manual or infrequent
Some BAS’s like ALC support “demand limit modes”, whereby system controls are tied to a sensitivity lever. The more aggressive the operating would like to be around demand limitation, the more aggressive the controls will be set. This capability provides granularity between On and Off that allows for demand curtailment even when the building or equipment is in use.
These demand limiting modes are in every piece of BAS equipment by default. In the same way that static pressure and airflow resets are available but not necessarily enabled capabilities, demand limiting modes are not always enabled despite being available.
In the case of Adaptive Automation, these demand limiting actions are triggered in software by Verdigris AI.
This raises the question how does a building operator set boundary conditions for her building?
Current as of October 9, 2019
The traditional process for building automation tuning might include collecting building operator requirements, in addition to analyzing a model, tuning each setpoint on a list, simulating the results and enacting the results.
To collect building operator requirements, the Adaptive Automation AI engine reads a programmatically defined set of parameters for the optimization engine set at time of implementation.
Boundary parameters that can be set are:
Maximum activation time - This parameter is the maximum amount of time that the operator would allow a control action to last.
Maximum duty cycle - This parameter sets the percent ON time over any 6 hour window.
Invalid hours - This parameter is a list of the days of week and hours that control actions may not run.
Relative cost per minute: (optional) - The cost of this resource loss per minute in relative terms to all functions. Costs not provided will assume a cost of 1.