An optimization system for a central plant (10) includes a processing circuit (106) configured to receive load prediction data indicating building energy loads and utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment (60) of the central plant (10) to serve the building energy loads. The optimization system includes a high level optimization module (130) configured to generate an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant (10) over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment (60). The high level optimization module (130) is configured to optimize the objective function over the optimization period subject to load equality constraints and capacity constraints on the central plant equipment (60) to determine an optimal distribution of the building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment (60).