Patent attributes
A building energy system includes equipment operable to consume, store, or generate one or more resources, a utility connection configured to obtain, from a utility provider, a first resource subject to a load-following-block rate structure and provide the first resource to the equipment, and a controller. The controller provides an objective function indicating a total value of purchasing the first resource from the utility provider over a plurality of time steps. The objective function includes a first term representing a load-following-block of the first resource from the utility provider as being sourced from a first supplier at a fixed rate and a second term representing a remainder of the first resource from the utility provider as being sourced from a second supplier at a variable rate. The controller controls the equipment based on a result of an optimization of the objective function.