Buildings and railway traffic systems are examples of complex technical systems that consume significant energy amounts so as to enable their inner processes to evolve as required. Thereby the requirements on dynamic functioning of these systems can be achieved by different system interactions, whereas some of them are more preferable than the others from the standpoints of energy consumption or other criteria like price of operation or equivalent pollution.

The global objective of the project 3CON is to research and develop optimal control techniques on significantly different large consumers – building systems and railway traffic systems – in conceptually identical way: by applying the principle of hierarchical decomposition of systems and cooperative optimal controls between the hierarchy levels. In that way the computed energy consumption profile on the lower level directly maximizes the global economic gain of the system operation in the presence of system constraints (e.g. allowed temperatures or fixed train travelling time). This will enable the proactive role of these largest consumers in energy grids of the future (smart grids). It will make them responsive and in position to best exploit the imposed varying energy exchange terms. Thereby vast possibilities in energy grid management through dynamic pricing will be opened – foremost for reducing losses between generation and consumption points in the grid and increasing grid reliability. The secondary global objective of this installation grant is to build an internationally competent research group in control of energy-intensive systems on the Faculty which is also recognized and accepted by relevant domestic companies.

The project developments will be verified through building and railway traffic case studies that will be supervised by relevant Croatian companies. This will ensure that all relevant system issues are taken care of in the design and that the design itself is close to exploitation.