MasterPlanner: A Central Utility Plant Design and Optimization Tool

This paper presents a web-based software for designing optimal central utility plants. This tool can receive user-defined load profiles or generate typical load profiles based on user-specified combination and areas of 16 reference building types. The software then solves a linear-programming optimization comprising 8760 sets of equations and constraints to design central plant configurations with minimal first cost, operating cost, life-cycle cost, energy use, or marginal carbon emissions. The tool also calculates simultaneous heating and cooling loads to evaluate using heat-recovery chillers, and it can design both hot and cold thermal energy storage as well as water-side economizers.