Abstract: Building energy consumption is controlled by operating energy consumptive devices according to a control plan determined by: using a software building model to simulate building behavior over a simulation period in accordance with predicted circumstances and in accordance with multiple control plans; for at least one of the control plans, re-simulating building behavior a plurality of times each with a different perturbation imposed, with each perturbation corresponding to a different degree of participation in a grid market, to thereby determine an amount of participation in the grid market available to the building; resimulating building behavior a plurality of times imposing said determined participation amount as a constraint; and selecting an optimal control plan based on the last round of resimulations.

Abstract: Buildings or facilities containing energy consuming or energy generating devices may be optimized for efficient energy usage and distribution. Energy consumption or generation by a building or components may be controlled by a system comprising a building model for predicting behavior of the building given predicted future conditions and possible control inputs. An optimization component running an optimization algorithm in conjunction with the building model may evaluate the predicted building behavior in accordance with at least one criterion and determine a desired set of control inputs. Commercial building thermal mass may be harnessed to continuously and optimally integrate large commercial building HVAC operations with electric grid operations and markets in large metropolitan areas. The service may be deployed using scalable, automated, web-based technology.