IBPSA-USA PSU Chapter | Lecture Series

Join the Penn State University IBPSA-USA chapter for their next lecture in the series presented by Dr. Michael Wetter. This is the second lecture in the series focusing on Advanced Modeling and Simulation for Building and Community Energy Systems.

Abstract

To scale and de-risk community building retrofits, the industry must shift from siloed
waterfall practices to integrated planning and virtual testing. Platform-Based Design
(PBD) addresses this by separating functionality from implementation, enabling
holistic decision-making, de-risking system integration and high degree of component
reuse.

We applied PBD to a 17-building geothermal Thermal Energy Network retrofit at Joint
Base Andrews. By building a fully coupled Modelica simulation of the borefield,
energy system, and controls, we caught critical sizing and hydronic issues preconstruction.
This virtual testing prevented millions of dollars in change orders and
identified comparable first-cost savings. The finalized design reduces imported
energy by 74% and peak demand by 45%.