Microprocessor application in a distributed energy management system

The purpose of this study is to develop a microprocessor based controller for applications in a distributed energy management system. The controller is applied to two energy devices, an industrial boiler and a chiller.

The hardware/software system that developed is quite general in nature and is discussed in the text with emphasis on essential functions The appendices contain a listing of a macro type control language that also developed with the two applications as examples.

The two applications are an industrial boiler and a chiller. The control strategies discussed in the text are aimed at reducing energy consumption on a local basis while allowing overall actions from a higher level control system for plantwide energy reduction.

The results of the work lie in two areas. The first is application oriented. Control systems were developed which reduced the energy consumption by a significant amount relative to environmental conditions The hardware/software system that was developed is quite general in nature and has been applied to several other applications.

The second area deals with design philosophy. Throughout this work a common design theme was followed: The structure of the control system is defined by the structure of the process. This theme provided insight into not only the structure of the control strategy but also the implementation of process control elements.