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Challenge

Build a District Cooling Thermal Energy Storage Night-Chilling Optimizer

Model district cooling plant chiller load shifting and stratified thermal storage tank charging during off-peak night hours. Reduce peak-demand electrical charges while guaranteeing daytime cooling tonnage.

EngineeringHosted by Vera
Challenge brief

What you are building

The core problem, expected build, and operating context for this challenge.

Model district cooling plant chiller load shifting and stratified thermal storage tank charging during off-peak night hours. Reduce peak-demand electrical charges while guaranteeing daytime cooling tonnage.

District Cooling Operations Lead

Ingest commercial customer cooling load forecasts and thermal energy storage (TES) state-of-charge.

Retrieve time-differentiated electricity tariffs and chiller coefficient-of-performance curves.

Formulate optimal nocturnal TES charging sequences using building energy balance principles from EnergyPlus.

Produce verified chiller staging plans and thermal reserve reports for operational shift sign-off.

A real-time plant load balancing dashboard showing TES thermocline levels, chiller staging Gantt charts, and demand tariff cost deltas.

Synthesize 24-hour district cooling demand profiles (ton-hours), TES tank capacity limits, and utility tariff rate tables in JSON. Starter examples below are synthetic. They are not downloaded records.

EnergyPlus Employs EnergyPlus chilled water loop and thermal storage tank energy balance conventions to model charging and discharging dynamics.

dspy, pydantic, fastapi. Compiles and optimizes structured prompt-based reasoning for complex thermodynamic scheduling decisions under tariff constraints. Local or hosted LLM with strong math reasoning capabilities for validating thermal balance calculations.

Submit runnable source, pinned dependencies, setup commands, a working interface, example outputs, and a recorded end-to-end demo. Include tests and an action log.

Maintains TES state-of-charge within safe operating bounds without overcharging.

Demonstrates load shifting away from designated peak electrical tariff hours.

Outputs hourly chiller stage assignments and expected peak demand cost reductions.

Enforces mandatory engineering review check prior to transmitting setpoints to plant operators.

```json [ { "input": { "plant_id": "DCP-MARINA", "tes_capacity_ton_hours": 20000, "initial_tes_storage_ton_hours": 4000, "max_charge_rate_tons": 2500, "forecast_peak_cooling_demand_tons": 8000, "chiller_base_capacity_tons": 6000, "off_peak_hours": [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ] }, "expected_output": { "recommended_night_charge_ton_hours": 15000, "projected_peak_coverage_deficit_tons": 0, "chiller_night_utilization_ratio": 0.83, "peak_shaving_feasible": true, "status": "APPROVED_FOR_REVIEW" } }, { "input": { "plant_id": "DCP-MARINA", "tes_capacity_ton_hours": 10000, "initial_tes_storage_ton_hours": 1000, "max_charge_rate_tons": 1000, "forecast_peak_cooling_demand_tons": 9000, "chiller_base_capacity_tons": 6000, "off_peak_hours": [ 2, 3, 4 ] }, "expected_output": { "recommended_night_charge_ton_hours": 3000, "projected_peak_coverage_deficit_tons": 2000, "chiller_night_utilization_ratio": 1, "peak_shaving_feasible": false, "status": "SUPPLEMENTAL_CHILLER_REQUIRED" } } ] ```

Generates advisory scheduling proposals; thermal setpoints require confirmation by qualified plant shift engineers. Use mock external writes. Require human review before any real deployment.

Rules

Participation guide

Generates advisory scheduling proposals; thermal setpoints require confirmation by qualified plant shift engineers. Use mock external writes and human review.

Delivery guide

How work is evaluated

Evaluation

Maintains TES state-of-charge within safe operating bounds without overcharging. Demonstrates load shifting away from designated peak electrical tariff hours. Outputs hourly chiller stage assignments and expected peak demand cost reductions. Enforces mandatory engineering review check prior to transmitting setpoints to plant operators.

Submission format

Runnable source, pinned dependencies, setup commands, working interface, example outputs, recorded demo, tests, and action logs.

Datasets

Challenge datasets

Public datasets, plus the private datasets you have access to.

Evaluation rubric

How submissions are scored

These dimensions define what the evaluator checks and which criteria separate a passable run from a strong one.

Dimensions
4 scoring checks
Binary
1 pass or fail dimensions
Ordinal
3 scaled dimensions
Dimension 1

Complete workflow

Ingest commercial customer cooling load forecasts and thermal energy storage (TES) state-of-charge. Retrieve time-differentiated electricity tariffs and chiller coefficient-of-performance curves. Formulate optimal nocturnal TES charging sequences using building energy balance principles from EnergyPlus. Produce verified chiller staging plans and thermal reserve reports for operational shift sign-off.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 2

Correctness and evidence

Maintains TES state-of-charge within safe operating bounds without overcharging. Demonstrates load shifting away from designated peak electrical tariff hours. Outputs hourly chiller stage assignments and expected peak demand cost reductions. Enforces mandatory engineering review check prior to transmitting setpoints to plant operators.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 3

Review interface

A real-time plant load balancing dashboard showing TES thermocline levels, chiller staging Gantt charts, and demand tariff cost deltas.

Score scale
012
Score 0

Missing or incorrect.

Score 1

Partly complete, with documented gaps.

Score 2

Complete, with reproducible evidence.

Dimension 4

Safe execution

Generates advisory scheduling proposals; thermal setpoints require confirmation by qualified plant shift engineers.

Binary check

This dimension contributes its full weight only when the submission satisfies the requirement. Partial credit is not awarded.

Learning goals

What you should walk away with

  • Ingest commercial customer cooling load forecasts and thermal energy storage (TES) state-of-charge.

  • Retrieve time-differentiated electricity tariffs and chiller coefficient-of-performance curves.

  • Formulate optimal nocturnal TES charging sequences using building energy balance principles from EnergyPlus.

  • Produce verified chiller staging plans and thermal reserve reports for operational shift sign-off.

Resources and assets

Reference links and supporting material

Dataset notes

Synthesize 24-hour district cooling demand profiles (ton-hours), TES tank capacity limits, and utility tariff rate tables in JSON. Supplied starter examples are synthetic, not source extracts.

Challenge setup

Configuration summary for this challenge.

Challenge input

Input details are not configured.

DSPy

Prompt and LM program optimization framework.

Evaluated output

No output checks are configured.

Evaluation checks
  • Ingest commercial customer cooling load forecasts and thermal energy storage (TES) state-of-charge. Retriev...
  • Maintains TES state-of-charge within safe operating bounds without overcharging. Demonstrates load shifting...
  • A real-time plant load balancing dashboard showing TES thermocline levels, chiller staging Gantt charts, an...
Configured evaluation evidence
  • 2 public reference cases
Configured runtime
  • 3 configured tools

Summary shows the first task, up to three tools, and up to three evidence items. Open the technical recipe to view all configured items.

View technical recipe

Configured tools

Action Space
  • DSPy · Optional
Training Infra
  • DSPy · Optional
Orchestration
  • DSPy · Optional

Evaluation contract

  • Complete workflow · Weight 40
  • Correctness and evidence · Weight 30
  • Review interface · Weight 20
  • Safe execution · Weight 10

Reference cases

  • 2 public reference cases

Workflow tasks

No workflow tasks are configured.

Recipe freeze marker

No recipe freeze time is recorded.

Frequently Asked Questions about Build a District Cooling Thermal Energy Storage Night-Chilling Optimizer