A compositional modeling framework for the optimal energy management of a district network

•Modeling components of a district network in a smart grid in terms of energy fluxes.•Compositional framework for energy management of a district network via optimization.•Analysis of multirate approaches for enabling real-time optimization.•Validation of the energy model of a building. This paper proposes a compositional modeling framework for the optimal energy management of a district network. The focus is on cooling of buildings, which can possibly share resources to the purpose of reducing maintenance costs and using devices at their maximal efficiency. Components of the network are described in terms of energy fluxes and combined via energy balance equations. Disturbances are accounted for as well, through their contribution in terms of energy. Different district configurations can be built, and the dimension and complexity of the resulting model will depend both on the number and type of components and on the adopted disturbance description. Control inputs are available to efficiently operate and coordinate the district components, thus enabling energy management strategies to minimize the electrical energy costs or track some consumption profile agreed with the main grid operator.