Online adaptive control for optimizing variable-speed pumps of indirect water-cooled chilling systems

An online control strategy is developed to optimize the speed of variable speed condenser cooling water pumps by resetting their pressure set-point, which includes an adaptive and a derivative control strategy. Optimal control is achieved by adjusting the pressure set-point according to the estimated derivative of the total power with respect to pressure. The adaptive strategy identifies the changes of the system parameters essential for the control strategy and updates the control accordingly. The control strategies, the implementation and evaluation of the control strategies on an indirect seawater-cooled chilling system with multiple pumps and chillers are presented.