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Is there a way to model a complex electric rate for thermal energy storage in OpenStudio or EnergyPlus?

asked 2016-04-29 10:16:26 -0500

updated 2017-04-16 14:55:38 -0500

Is there a way to input a complex electric rate for thermal energy storage in OpenStudio 1.10 or EnergyPlus 8.4? I am modeling a chilled water plant with ice thermal storage, and would like to get an estimate for what the electric costs would be. Attached is the electric rate structure for thermal energy storage and a screenshot of the OS measure "tariff selection time and date dependent with maximum demand charge". Does anyone know of an OS measure that would include all of the information for this rate structure, or preferably someway to do this in OS, even if it involves using a text editor? If not, how could this be input into EnergyPlus IDF Editor?

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Specifically, is there a way in OS to model mid peak weekend hours? Also, is there a way to add monthly customer charges ($/month)?

kramerica's avatar kramerica  ( 2016-04-29 10:38:24 -0500 )edit

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answered 2016-04-29 13:15:17 -0500

David Goldwasser's answer indicates how to get the Tariff integrated into EnergyPlus.

As far as a UtilityCost:Tariff in EnergyPlus that can do mid-peak over weekend hours, in the UtilityCost:Tariff reference a schedule name in the Time of Use Period Schedule Name field that defines those hours using the number 4 as the value for those hours. Then for the UtilityCost:Charge:Simple reference the midPeakEnergy variable as the source variable. You might want to take a look at the "Example F Seaonal Time of Use Energy " from the documentation to understand how it works.

For the monthly customer charge, in the UtilityCost:Tariff object, put the cost in the Monthly Charge or Variable Name field.

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answered 2016-04-29 10:55:10 -0500

updated 2016-04-29 10:55:54 -0500

OpenStudio uses EnergyPlus measures to add tariffs to a model, so you can add any tariff structure that EnergyPlus supports. There is a Tariff Selection Generic Measure on BCL that lets you add any IDF files to a "resources" folder to use as tariffs. It includes a number of example tariff structures that may serve as a starting point for you.

Additionally here is a link to the UtilityCost:Tariff documentation for EnergyPlus.

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@David Goldwasser The measure is intended for Open studio, is there a similar utility for Energyplus. I intend to fetch tariff based on the location selected in weather file.Using OPenStudio I downloaded the measures but they don't appear under apply measure windows.

rkbest's avatar rkbest  ( 2016-09-21 18:26:44 -0500 )edit

Apply Measures now can only run measures that operate on the OpenStudio model. Utility rates are added to the EnergyPlus IDF file just before the simulation is run. They can be added in the OpenStudio application in the "Measures" tab. Every time you run a simulation this measure will be run just before passing off it off to EnergyPlus for simulation.

David Goldwasser's avatar David Goldwasser  ( 2016-09-22 10:13:16 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2016-04-29 10:16:26 -0500

Seen: 358 times

Last updated: Apr 29 '16