Linear programming control of a group of heat pumps∗

For the new Meppel district Nieuwveense landen a hybrid energy concept is developed based on biogas cogeneration. The generated electricity is used to power domestic heat pumps which supply thermal energy for domestic hot water and space heating demand of households. In this paper we investigate scheduling of a group of heat pumps in order to minimize the maximum peak of the total electricity consumption. Results of two different control methods are presented to balance the electric power demand for the group of heat pumps. The paper addresses specific issues like computational hardness and the difficulty of prediction of energy demand. We show that the control method which uses a scaling time gives equal results to an exact approach but requires less computational effort.