Application of artificial intelligence (AI) control system on chiller plant at MTR station

Chillers account for up to 40% of total station energy consumption in the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system. As part of green railway initiatives, a site trial was conducted to apply a fully automated AI system to control a chiller plant in order to optimise energy performance in real time while maintaining a level of passenger comfort that suits each station’s environment. Through the predictive power of the AI system, the plant power’s consumption and cooling demands can be forecasted based on actual chiller, station, and weather conditions, all of which vary over time. The optimal operational settings can then be determined using an optimisation model for real-time chiller plant control, including staging, sequencing, chilled water supply temperature set-point, etc. This paper presents the formulation of an AI system using data-driven machine learning models and numerical optimisation, and the comparison of the actual energy performance of the proposed system against rule-based control optimisation in a conventional building management system (BMS) through the site trial. The results revealed the proposed AI system achieves better energy efficiency with annual energy savings of approximately 8.7%.