Energy plant design and operation

1. A forward-looking method for determining an economically optimal energy dispatching schema to meet heating, cooling and electrical demands, comprising:

(a) having an energy plant comprising a plurality of heating and cooling equipment for producing heat and cooling, wherein said equipment comprises one or more heaters, one or more chillers, one or more heat recovery chillers, one or more hot thermal storage tanks, and one or more cold thermal storage tanks, wherein said equipment consuming electricity for said heating and cooling;

(b) having a facilities plant comprising a plurality of facilities consuming electricity and at least some of said facilities consuming said produced heat and cooling from said energy plant;

(c) a computer-implemented program executable on a computer for determining said economically optimal energy dispatching schema to meet heating, cooling and electrical loads by said energy plant and said facilities plant,

wherein said program comprises calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of a plurality of incremental time segments defined in a forward-looking time period by optimizing said combined heating, cooling, and electrical loads using the steps of:

(i) calculating an unmet volume of heating and cooling load that cannot be met by thermal storage discharge from said one or more hot thermal storage tanks and said one or more cold storage tanks;

(ii) calculating a first complementary volume of heating and cooling production to complement said unmet volume of heating and cooling load (i) by using preproduction dispatching from: (j) said one or more heat recovery chillers, (jj) said one or more heaters, (jjj) said one or more chillers, or a combination thereof; and

(iii) calculating a second complementary volume of heating and cooling production, thermal storage discharge and thermal storage recharge to complement said unmet volume that cannot be met by (i)-(ii) by using standard production dispatching from: (k) said one or more heat recovery chillers, (kk) said one or more heaters, (kkk) said one or more chillers, or a combination thereof; and

(d) using said determined optimal energy dispatching schema for: (p) real time energy dispatching by said energy plant for one or more of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period, (pp) an existing energy plant optimization over said forward looking time period, (ppp) a new energy plant planning and design over said forward looking time period or any other forward-looking time period.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises calculating a maximum amount of electricity that may be consumed by said energy plant given a total electricity limitation that may be imposed by one or more aspects of said economically optimal energy determination, by one or more regulatory directions in the interest of electric grid management safety, or a combination thereof.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises calculating any heating supply temperature boost that must be provided by said one or more heaters due to limitations in maximum temperature lift capabilities of said one or more heat recovery chillers.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using weather forecasts for the facilities to be served by said energy plant.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using electricity, heating, and cooling loads for said facilities to be served by said energy plant.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using energy commodity costs for each type of energy to be consumed in said energy plant.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using an energy efficiency of each of said equipment in said energy plant.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using an available production capacity of each of said equipment in said energy plant.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said program of calculating said optimal energy dispatching schema for each of said plurality of incremental time segments defined in said forward-looking time period further comprises determining and using an available maximum storage capacity, an actual energy storage volume, a maximum recharge rate, a maximum discharge rate, or a combination thereof of said hot and cold thermal storage tanks in said energy plant.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the type of energy is electricity, a gaseous fuel, a liquid fuel, a solid fuel, a natural gas, hydrogen, diesel, fuel oil, biomass, or coal.

11. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said incremental time segment are user defined.

12. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said incremental time segment are defined in seconds, minutes, day, weeks, months, or years.

13. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said forward-looking time period is at least seven days and includes at least one weekend.

14. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said forward-looking time period is one or more weeks, one or more months, or one or more years.

15. The method as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising using said determined optimal energy dispatching schema for design and planning over a second forward looking time period, wherein said second forward looking time period is one or more weeks, one or more months, or one or more years.