Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.

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 Controls - What is important to consider for controls on internal melt - ice energy storage systems?
We've chosen to break it down into these four areas. Let's talk about defining and documenting
the control modes.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 First, controls cannot achieve performance the system does not support. It is very important that
the design to supports all six operating modes.
Paul mentioned these earlier and they are shown on this slide.
How can you know that the system will operate properly in each mode?

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 The only way I prove it to myself is to diagram out each mode, with temperatures, flows, and
pressures so that you know where the water is suppose to flow - and that it will actually flow there.
Here is diagram of our air-cooled chiller energy storage system in the ice making mode. As you can
see the ice valve is directing all the flow through the storage tanks.
The controller can either take direct control of the valve position, or trick it into this position by
sending it a low - say 15 degree set point.
The chiller is enabled in the ice mode with a set point lower than the design ice freeze set point to
make sure the chiller fully loads.
Since the average charge temperature is 22 degrees in our example we'll send the chiller a 20
degree set point.
The system operates in this mode until the tanks are fully charged.
How do we know when to terminate the freeze cycle? Fortunately a simple and reliable signal is
available to indicate the end of "freeze" mode.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 Because of the huge amount of heat transfer surface in the ice tanks -
the temperature of the fluid leaving the ice tanks during the freeze remains relatively constant until near charge completion.
When almost all of the water is frozen the ice in the tank begins to sub-cool
and the temperature of the fluid leaving the tank begins to drop.
This decrease in the leaving-fluid temperature can be used as an indicator of when "freeze" mode is complete.
This logic is so reliable and standardized it is built into many chiller control systems from the factory. The ice storage selection
tools such as Ice Pick tell us the appropriate termination temperature based on tank selection and system design.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 While diagramming the system operation, it is extremely useful to document each component's
operating conditions in a tabular form.
This can be invaluable not only to the BAS technician but when commissioning the system as well.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 Here is the mode that is sometimes overlooked - make ice and cool simultaneously.
Its only different from the Ice Making mode in that we turn on the distribution pump and send the
blending valve the distribution supply 42 degree set point.
If you remember from Susanna's design discussion the main reason we've gone to this system
configuration is to enable night cooling with normal cooling temperatures rather than the off ice
tank temperature fluid.
The key to the success of this mode of operation is the control of the blending valve. Which means,
use a high quality valve and see to it that it is commissioned properly.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 And now the mode who's control is most critical.
In this case the system is cooling with a combination of chiller capacity and ice melting.
This could be called the partial storage mode.
Think of this as a series chiller system.
The up-stream "unit", the chiller, is controlled to take part of the load and the down steam "unit",
the ice, picks up the rest.
But in this case rather than control the chiller to a chilled water set point we control it by limiting
it's power draw with a demand limit signal.
The down stream Ice Valve is given the desired system supply chilled water temperature and carries
the balance of the load.
There is one very neat feature of the system that we have here.
Since we downsized the chiller in our design - it is actually impossible for this system to set a
demand peak as high as a chiller only system.
So even if the chiller does not get demand limited perfectly it will still save the owner operating
cost.
But what value of demand limit signal should be given to the upstream chiller? The more the
chiller is demand limited the more ice will be used.
The proper demand limit for the chiller depends on the amount of ice capacity designed into the
system and original energy goal for the system.
Ice Storage Design and Application
© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 So we need to understand this goal.
Is it to Peak Shave the electrical kW demand costs? Or is it to Load Shift the maximum daily kWh
consumption?
Lets look at each of these energy goals from a control implication point of view.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 If the goal is to peak shave then it is critical to be able to control the rate of ice melt so that we do
not run out of ice during the on-peak period.
The worst thing that can happen is for the system to use up all the storage before the end of the
on-peak billing period.
If this were to happen the would chiller have to load up and potentially set an on-peak demand.
So at the end of the on-peak period you want some ice left over. The system design software
allows the designer to determine a chiller limit set point that safely shaves the greatest kW and still
have some ice left over.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 Alternatively, if the goal is to Load Shift the maximum K-W-H consumption from on-peak to off-
peak then the system should melt as much ice as possible during the on-peak time period every
day.
In this case we would limit the chiller to a lower load, to push load to the ice.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 The mode chart again reveals and reinforces the only difference in operation of the system to meet
this differing goals.
It is the load limit signal given to the chiller.
This is great news because it means that within the limits of the chiller and ice capacities we can
operate an ice system to meet either goal and easily change it in the future if utility rates change.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 The result of the exercise of creating these operational diagrams will be a completed the mode
table looks something like this.
If transition between modes is important some designers add intermediate steps to let the control
technicians know the sequence for a proper transition from one mode to another.
This table becomes an important part of the job sequence.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 Before we leave this section on operating modes it would be good to provide one comment on
system diagnostics.
Thermal storage systems have a number of extra blending or diverting valves and the successful
operation of the system depends on their proper operation.
That tells me two things. Specify high quality valves, don't accept cheap substitutes and monitor
their operation.
You can monitor their operation with valve end switches or position potentiometers or with system
temperatures.
For Example, if the system is supposed to be in the ice making mode its critical that ALL the chilled
water should be going though the ice tanks.
How could we tell if the ice valve was fully in the ice tank position. One easy way would be to
compare the leaving tank temperature…
To the chiller return water temperature.
If they are not the same, with a small allowance for pump heat, we know there is chilled water by-
passing the tanks and we should alarm the operator to that condition. We could do other similar
system checks.
The final step in the engineering of the thermal storage control is the coordination of the modes of
operation with the utility rate structure.
Ice Storage Design and Application
© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 This utility coordination can take many forms but typically evolves from the initial meeting with the
electrical utility.
The timing for modes control may be as simple as a fixed on-peak kW limit or a time-of-day based
on-peak off-peak schedule.
It could however involve a sophisticated internet based real-time utility rate monitoring application.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 Real time pricing could really make an ice energy storage system dance. By this I mean it will want
to control the system to be real time "price responsive".
With real time pricing the electrical utility can change the price they charge for electricity as often
as every 15 minutes.
The good news is that they give the building a 15 minute warning of a pending change in price.
Based on that warning signal the control system can easily change from an all chiller cooling mode
to an all ice cooling mode or even to a combined cooling and ice making mode.
A very nice feature of an internal-melt energy storage system is that it is easy to seamlessly change
operating modes to response in to such a signal.
Once the mode timing or signaling is decided upon its typically a simple step to specify the
responsibilities of the control company.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 There is one more element critical to the SUCCESS of any thermal storage system. That is well
informed operators - for the life of the system.
As a matter-of-fact, when I asked our most experienced application engineer what might cause a
failure of an ice energy storage system his first response was: "A second generation operator."
By that he meant one that was not well trained and familiar with the goals and operation of the
system.
The only way I know to combat this is to leave behind a well-documented system and a well-
designed operator interface. One that informs and engages the operator with the system.
In the past year I've seen two innovative ways to accomplish this.
The first is to specify that the controls vendor embed the same mode diagrams we just been
looking at in the Operator Interface.
As the system switches from one mode to another the system diagram in the control system
changes to show the operator exactly what is happening.
It really informs and engages the operator.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 The second innovative control method that's been shared makes it easy for the operator to be involved with the
daily operation of the system and help "optimize" it on a daily basis.
The operator is simply given three different buttons to push based on the expected load for the day or week.
Choosing each button actually equates to choosing the demand limit set point for the chiller and therefore the ice
melt rate.
If the Hot and Humid Day button is chosen the chiller is allowed to load more so that the design day peak is shaved
with ice, if the Warm Day button is chosen then the chiller limited more to cause the ice to save the peak on milder
days.
On a cool day the chiller may be stopped completely so the ice carries the full on-peak load.
Of course, if the daily load unexpectedly rises, the system would override the operator's choice to make sure the
building's cooling load is met. And of course inform the operator that it did so.
We've discussed these four critical elements to the control of a storage system. With a little fore-thought, control
of Ice storage is actually quite easy. Not much different from any other chiller plant control.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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 We've discussed these four critical elements to the control of a storage system. With a little fore-
thought, control of Ice storage is actually quite easy. Not much different from any other chiller
plant control.
My last comment would be that the importance of the design engineer's involvement in the
commissioning of the system cannot be over-stated.
This cannot be simply be left to the discretion of the control technician on the job.
They can program anything that is desired, however they seldom know what is needed.
So I would urge you - proper commission is important with any building system, but possibly none
more so than a thermal storage system.
We could go on with control details for a long time but we need to move on to other important
subjects.

Ice Storage Design and Application

© 2009 Trane, a business of Ingersoll-Rand.
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