blockStagingParameters

Information

This block pre-computes all staging parameters for a plant with n_HP standard reversible heat pumps and n_PHP polyvalent heat pumps (capable of simultaneous heating and cooling, SHC).

Fundamental assumptions

Within each equipment set (reversible HPs and polyvalent HPs), all units are assumed to be equally sized and are treated as lead/lag alternates. Adding one unit of either type therefore contributes one additional stage of capacity, so the maximum number of plant stages is n_Sta = n_HP + n_PHP. Heating and cooling stages are tracked independently, each ranging over {0, …, n_Sta}, since the same pool of units can serve either load.

For each combination of active heating and cooling stages (i_Hea, i_Coo) with i_Hea, i_Coo ∈ {0, …, n_Sta}, the block resolves how many units operate in each mode by applying the following assignment rules in order.

1. SHC assignment

Polyvalent HPs are assigned to simultaneous heating and cooling first, saturating at the available count and at the smaller of the two stage indices (since each SHC unit satisfies one heating stage and one cooling stage simultaneously):

n^SHC_PHP = min(min(i_Hea, i_Coo), n_PHP)

The residual heating and cooling stages after SHC assignment are:

i^res_Hea = i_Hea - n^SHC_PHP,    i^res_Coo = i_Coo - n^SHC_PHP

2. Heating assignment

Standard HPs cover the residual heating stage first:

n^Hea_HP = min(i^res_Hea, n_HP)

Any remaining residual heating stage is covered by polyvalent HPs operating in heating-only mode (drawn from those not already in SHC):

n^Hea_PHP = min(i^res_Hea - n^Hea_HP,  n_PHP - n^SHC_PHP)

3. Cooling assignment

Standard HPs not used for heating are assigned to the residual cooling stage:

n^Coo_HP = min(i^res_Coo,  n_HP - n^Hea_HP)

Remaining polyvalent HPs (neither in SHC nor heating-only) cover any unmet cooling stage:

n^Coo_PHP = min(i^res_Coo - n^Coo_HP,  n_PHP - n^SHC_PHP - n^Hea_PHP)

Feasibility

A stage combination is feasible if and only if both residual stages are fully covered by the assigned units:

i^res_Hea = n^Hea_HP + n^Hea_PHP    and    i^res_Coo = n^Coo_HP + n^Coo_PHP

Combinations that cannot be satisfied with the available equipment (e.g., requiring more simultaneous heating and cooling stages than there are polyvalent HPs) are flagged in is_feasible and receive zero weights in the staging matrices.

Staging matrices

The parameters staCoo and staHea pack feasible stage combinations into matrices consumed by the equipment enable logic. Each has (n_Sta + 1) × n_Sta rows (one per non-zero stage transition) and n_HP + 2 n_PHP columns, ordered as: standard HPs | polyvalent HPs (cooling- or heating-only) | polyvalent HPs (SHC).

For staCoo, row r corresponds to i_Hea = ⌊(r - 1) / n_Sta⌋ (outer index, 0 ≤ i_Hea ≤ n_Sta) and i_Coo = (r - 1) mod n_Sta + 1 (inner index, 1 ≤ i_Coo ≤ n_Sta). Column values are normalized fractions, as specified in the documentation of Buildings.Templates.Plants.Controls.StagingRotation.EquipmentEnable.:

• Columns 1 … n_HP:  n^Coo_HP / max(n_HP, 1)
• Columns n_HP + 1 … n_HP + n_PHP:  n^Coo_PHP / max(n_PHP, 1)
• Columns n_HP + n_PHP + 1 … n_HP + 2 n_PHP:  n^SHC_PHP / max(n_PHP, 1)

A row of zeros indicates an infeasible stage combination. staHea follows the same column layout but with i_Coo as the outer index and i_Hea as the inner index, and the heating counts substituted for the cooling counts.

Parameters

Revisions

• July 10, 2026, by Antoine Gautier:
  First implementation.