Simulated Annealing based Operating Flow Rate Combination Search Method for Reducing Power Consumption of Multi-Compressor Systems

A multi-compressor system consists of multiple compressors that supply high-pressure compressed air to meet target pressure and flow rate requirements. The total flow rate is obtained by combining the output of each compressor through a single pipeline. Since the total power consumption of the system depends on the operating flow rate combination of individual compressors, determining efficient combinations is critical. However, in practice, these combinations are often selected based on operator experience, which does not guarantee energy efficiency. In this study, we propose a simulated annealing based search method to search suboptimal operating flow combinations that can reduce the total power consumption of multi-compressor systems. The proposed method explicitly considers operational constraints such as compressor on/off status, flow rate capacity limits by compressor type, and target pressure and flow rate requirements. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves greater power savings compared to engineering heuristic approaches, highlighting its effectiveness for energy-efficient operation of multi-compressor systems.