Towards an intelligent control system for district heating plants: Design and implementation of a fuzzy logic based control loop

In this paper, we lay the foundation for a specialized Intelligent Control System (ICS) for district heating plants and investigate the problem of integrating particular knowledge into the developed system. In particular, we consider the fuzzy logic based control module. Based on control system knowledge, a particular control loop is developed and successfully implemented on a live industrial heating plant. The resulting automatic control system improves the performance of the existing control loop, allows to prolong the lifespan of industrial equipment by allowing to maintain it in a nominal operating condition, and alleviates the necessity for frequent manual control override by heating plant operators. The obtained knowledge forms a valuable asset to the ICS as a part of the corresponding module.