Publications

V. M. Zavala, "Real-Time Resolution of Conflicting Objectives in Building Energy Management: An Utopia-Tracking Approach," Preprint ANL/MCS-P2056-0312, March 2012. [pdf]

We present an utopia-tracking multiobjective optimization strategy to resolve conflicting objectives in real-time energy management. Conflicts arise frequently from the need to balance economic and noneconomic metrics such as energy demand and occupant comfort. We demonstrate that the proposed approach leads to better performance compared with the traditional weighting approach. In particular, we demonstrate that improper adjustment of weights can lead to large excursions in performance. The proposed approach automatically locates the optimal weights and does not require the computation of the Pareto front, making it ideal for real-time implementation.