A practical hybrid predictive control algorithm for a low-temperature thermosolar plant

This work presents a control approach to deal with plants formed by several interconnected subprocesses and where the interconnection between subprocesses can change during the plant operation. The change from one operation mode to another, where each operation mode is defined by a discrete variable set, implies a change in the process behaviour that must be counteracted by the control system. In this work, a practical hybrid model predictive control is proposed to take the behaviour changes related to the hybrid nature of the process into account. The proposed control algorithm is based on the adaptation of several well‐known control strategies that have been successfully applied in the industrial field. A solar thermal system (composed of a solar thermal flat collector field, one or more accumulation tanks connected in series and a gas heater) is used to show the resulting control strategy through detailed simulations.