EnergyPlus Agent

This agent allows a user to run building model simulations with EnergyPlus and to send/receive messages back and forth between VOLTTRON and the simulated building. For more information about EnergyPlus, please refer to https://www.energyplus.net/sites/default/files/docs/site_v8.4.0/GettingStarted/GettingStarted/index.html. Technical documentation about the simulation framework can be found at https://volttron.readthedocs.io/en/develop/developing-volttron/integrating-simulations/index.html

EnergyPlus installation

For installing setup in Ubuntu based systems,

1. Install java JDK package

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install default-jdk
   

2. Download and install EnergyPlus (ver 8.4.0)

   wget https://github.com/NatLabRockies/EnergyPlus/releases/download/v8.4.0-Update1/EnergyPlus-8.4.0-09f5359d8a-Linux-x86_64.sh
   chmod +x EnergyPlus-8.4.0-09f5359d8a-Linux-x86_64.sh
   sudo ./EnergyPlus-8.4.0-09f5359d8a-Linux-x86_64.sh 
   

3. You can verify the installation with.

   energyplus --version
   

4. You should see an output with a version number of 8.4.0

   EnergyPlus, Version 8.4.0-c87e61b44b
   

EnergyPlus Agent Configuration

Simulating a building with the EnergyPlus Agent requires three files:

• Energy Plus Input Data File (IDF): an ASCII file containing the data describing the building and HVAC system to be simulated.
• Energy Plus Weather File (EPW): a standardized container for TMY (typical meteorological year) weather data.
• A configuration file that defines the available points from the IDF and maps these to VOLTTRON topics.

The EnergyPlus agent can be run with any IDF file, so long as it is compatible with the installed version of EnergyPlus. Using a different EPW file allows the building to be simulated in a new location.

Several models, from the DOE Prototype Building Models are included in the agent with pre-defined configurations. These models may be used by specifying the name of the model in an abreviated configuration file:

{
    "cosimulation_advance": "applications/ilc/advance",
    "properties": {
      "model": "small_office",
      "size": 40960,
      "startmonth": 7,
      "startday": 3,
      "endmonth": 8,
      "endday": 31,
      "timestep": 60,
      "cosimulation_sync": false,
      "real_time_periodic": false,
      "co_sim_timestep": 5,
      "real_time_flag": false,
      "base_topic": "Campus/SMALL_OFFICE"
    }
}

The following model names are included:

• building1
• large_office
• medium_office
• small_office
• warehouse

Other IDF files may be utilized by specifying the path to IDF file in the agent configuration's "model" key in place of a short name. It should be noted, however, that building a configuration file for the IDF may require good knowledge of Energy Plus as the agent configuration file will need to additionally inputs and outputs dictionaries. Examples of complete configuration files includeing input and output dictionaries can be found in the models directory of source of this package. For instance: Building1 Config.

1. Install volttron-energyplus package. The VIP identity can mimic that of the platform driver (as shown below) or can be a unique identity for the agent. Importantly, though agents which interact with it must use the same VIP identity. If a real platform driver is not used on this platform, it is recommended to use the "platform.driver" identity as this avoids needing to modify other agents which are designed to interact with a real driver.

   vctl install volttron-energyplus --vip-identity platform.driver --tag eplus
   

2. Store the configuration file in the VOLTTRON configuration store:

   vctl config store platform.actuator volttron-energyplus/ep_building1.yml volttron-energyplus/ep_building1.yml
   

3. Start the agent:

   vctl start --tag eplus
   

Development

Please see the following for contributing guidelines contributing.

Please see the following helpful guide about developing modular VOLTTRON agents