Parametric Study of a Simplified Ice Storage Model Operating Under Conventional and Optimal Control Strategies

A simplified ice storage system model was developed in which the icemaking mode is reflected by a higher power consumption per unit cooling than in chilled-water mode. The performance of four control strategies for ice storage systems is evaluated. The four control strategies investigated are chiller-priority and constant-proportion as conventional, instantaneous controls, while storage-priority and optimal control represent sophisticated controls employing load forecasting. Six parameters were investigated with respect to their influence on the ice storage system performance: Storage losses, utility rate structures, rate periods, penalty for icemaking, storage capacity, and the impact of load forecasting. Optimal control was determined to provide maximal operating cost savings. The storage-priority control yields operating costs only slightly higher than those of optimal control. Chiller-priority control realized savings that were typically on the order of 50% of what is theoretically possible (optimal control). Constant-proportion control proved to be a simple control strategy yielding higher savings than chiller-priority, yet lower than storage-priority control.