Patent ID: 8880202

Claim:
A configuration system for use in configuring an operation of a plant having a set of interconnected plant equipment, wherein the plant equipment includes multiple sets of energy production units that can be run separately or together to produce energy, the configuration system comprising: a non-transitory computer readable memory that stores a plurality of equipment models that model the operation of the plant equipment and an objective function defining optimal operation of the interconnected plant equipment, wherein the non-transitory computer readable memory stores first and second different equipment models for the enemy production units; a numerical solver that operates on a computer processing device using the objective function, the plurality of equipment models and a set of plant configuration input criteria to determine an optimal operating configuration of the set of interconnected plant equipment by determining an operational configuration of the set of interconnected plant equipment that minimizes or maximizes the objective function; and an expert engine that operates on a computer processing device to determine one or more operating values for use in running the plant equipment, wherein the expert engine calls the numerical solver a plurality of times to determine the one or more operating values for use in running the plant equipment, and wherein the expert engine provides the numerical solver a different set of plant configuration input criteria during each of the calls, wherein the numerical solver uses the first equipment model for one or more of the energy production units during a first call from the expert engine and uses the second equipment model for one or more of the energy production units during a second call from the expert engine.