A control system is described for controlling the operation of a target system, such as a data center. The control system uses a prediction module to predict demand for resources of the target system for future time steps. The control system then uses a transition determination module to determine state transitions within the target system to address the predicted demand. Each state transition describes a number of units to be advanced from a first state, at a first time step, to a second state, at a second time step. The control system then commences those state transitions which begin in the current step, and then repeats the predicting and determining for a next time step. The transition determination module can determine the state transitions by operating on an objective function that includes a demand difference component and a cost component, as subject to a set of conservation equations.