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Challenge

Build an Industrial Chiller Thermal Storage Pre-Cooling Optimizer

Build an application to monitor Sparkplug B chiller telemetry and determine optimal thermal storage pre-cooling windows. Avoid peak utility tariffs by calculating required refrigeration ramp-up times using thermal inertia constraints and outputting setpoint adjustment schedules.

EngineeringHosted by Vera
Challenge brief

What you are building

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

Build an application to monitor Sparkplug B chiller telemetry and determine optimal thermal storage pre-cooling windows. Avoid peak utility tariffs by calculating required refrigeration ramp-up times using thermal inertia constraints and outputting setpoint adjustment schedules.

Industrial Energy Systems Architect

Parse Sparkplug B telemetry payloads to extract chilled water loop temperatures and active factory cooling load demands.

Calculate the thermal mass energy required to reach the target setpoint using the configured energy-per-degree coefficient.

Model the required pre-cooling duration using Semantic Kernel to orchestrate the calculation against available chiller capacity.

Generate a precise schedule of automated setpoint adjustment start times designed to complete pre-cooling before peak tariff hours.

JSON API endpoint returning calculated pre-cooling start times and duration metrics.

Generate synthetic JSON records modeling Sparkplug B metric streams for chilled water supply temperatures and operational capacities. Starter examples below are synthetic. They are not downloaded records.

Eclipse Sparkplug Leverages Sparkplug B metric properties and complex data types from Source 2 to parse industrial thermal states.

semantic-kernel, pydantic, fastapi. Semantic Kernel orchestrates the integration of AI-driven scheduling heuristics with deterministic thermal storage calculation tools. Local or hosted LLM capable of function calling and strict JSON output generation.

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.

Accurately calculates required pre-cooling duration using the formula: (delta_temp_c * energy_per_c_kwh) / available_cooling_kw.

Properly deducts the calculated pre-cooling duration from the peak tariff start hour to determine the optimal start command time.

Exports a structured JSON schedule containing the required cooling hours and the setpoint start time for the HVAC control system.

```json [ { "input": { "delta_temp_c": 4, "energy_per_c_kwh": 50, "available_cooling_kw": 100, "peak_tariff_start_hour": 15 }, "expected_output": { "required_precool_hours": 2, "start_command_hour": 13, "record_type": "simplified synthetic app record" } }, { "input": { "delta_temp_c": 3, "energy_per_c_kwh": 50, "available_cooling_kw": 100, "peak_tariff_start_hour": 14 }, "expected_output": { "required_precool_hours": 1.5, "start_command_hour": 12.5, "record_type": "simplified synthetic app record" } } ] ```

Read-only planning tool; all generated pre-cooling setpoints require manual review by plant facility engineers before being applied to live equipment. Use mock external writes. Require human review before any real deployment.

Rules

Participation guide

Read-only planning tool; all generated pre-cooling setpoints require manual review by plant facility engineers before being applied to live equipment. Use mock external writes and human review.

Delivery guide

How work is evaluated

Evaluation

Accurately calculates required pre-cooling duration using the formula: (delta_temp_c * energy_per_c_kwh) / available_cooling_kw. Properly deducts the calculated pre-cooling duration from the peak tariff start hour to determine the optimal start command time. Exports a structured JSON schedule containing the required cooling hours and the setpoint start time for the HVAC control system.

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

Parse Sparkplug B telemetry payloads to extract chilled water loop temperatures and active factory cooling load demands. Calculate the thermal mass energy required to reach the target setpoint using the configured energy-per-degree coefficient. Model the required pre-cooling duration using Semantic Kernel to orchestrate the calculation against available chiller capacity. Generate a precise schedule of automated setpoint adjustment start times designed to complete pre-cooling before peak tariff hours.

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

Accurately calculates required pre-cooling duration using the formula: (delta_temp_c * energy_per_c_kwh) / available_cooling_kw. Properly deducts the calculated pre-cooling duration from the peak tariff start hour to determine the optimal start command time. Exports a structured JSON schedule containing the required cooling hours and the setpoint start time for the HVAC control system.

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

JSON API endpoint returning calculated pre-cooling start times and duration metrics.

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

Read-only planning tool; all generated pre-cooling setpoints require manual review by plant facility engineers before being applied to live equipment.

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

  • Parse Sparkplug B telemetry payloads to extract chilled water loop temperatures and active factory cooling load demands.

  • Calculate the thermal mass energy required to reach the target setpoint using the configured energy-per-degree coefficient.

  • Model the required pre-cooling duration using Semantic Kernel to orchestrate the calculation against available chiller capacity.

  • Generate a precise schedule of automated setpoint adjustment start times designed to complete pre-cooling before peak tariff hours.

Resources and assets

Reference links and supporting material

Dataset notes

Generate synthetic JSON records modeling Sparkplug B metric streams for chilled water supply temperatures and operational capacities. Supplied starter examples are synthetic, not source extracts.

Challenge setup

Configuration summary for this challenge.

Challenge input

Input details are not configured.

Semantic Kernel

Agent Systems · Agent Frameworks

Evaluated output

No output checks are configured.

Evaluation checks
  • Parse Sparkplug B telemetry payloads to extract chilled water loop temperatures and active factory cooling...
  • Accurately calculates required pre-cooling duration using the formula: (delta_temp_c * energy_per_c_kwh) /...
  • JSON API endpoint returning calculated pre-cooling start times and duration metrics.
Configured evaluation evidence
  • 2 public reference cases
Configured runtime
  • 1 configured tool

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
  • Semantic Kernel · 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 an Industrial Chiller Thermal Storage Pre-Cooling Optimizer