Final Report published

The final report of Annex 60 is now published and can be browsed online, downloaded as a pdf file, or ordered as a book.

Annex 60 continued as IBPSA Project 1

The IEA EBC Annex 60 is now continued as the IBPSA Project 1. A kick-off meeting has been held on August 5, 2017, co-located with the Building Simulation 2017 conference. For more information, visit https://ibpsa.github.io/project1

Modelica Annex 60 Library Released

On January 18, 2017, the first version of the Modelica Annex 60 library has been released.

The Annex 60 library is a free library that provides basic classes for the development of Modelica libraries for building and community energy and control systems.

The intent of the library is that classes of this library will be extended by implementations of Modelica libraries that are targeted to end-users. Major goals are to codify best practice and to provide a solid foundation onto which other libraries for building and community energy systems can be built, and to avoid a fragmentation of libraries that serve similar purpose but that cannot share models among each others, thereby duplicating efforts for model development and validation.

Hence, this library is typically not used directly by end-users, but rather by developers of libraries that will be distributed to end-users. Libraries that are using the Annex60 library as their core, or that are working on using the Annex60 as their core, include, in alphabetic order:

To browse the library, go to https://www.iea-annex60.org/releases/modelica/1.0.0/help/Annex60.html

To download, click on https://www.iea-annex60.org/releases/modelica/1.0.0/Annex60-v1.0.0.zip

After this official release, the library will be further developed through the IBPSA Project 1. The new library development site will be https://github.com/ibpsa/modelica.

GENSIM scientific school - Slides posted

Following the completion of the research phase of Annex 60, Etienne Wurtz from CEA, France, and Michael Wetter from LBNL, USA, organized the GENSIM scientific school. GENSIM took place from October 24th until October 28th in Porticcio, France. Its main purpose was to teach Modelica, FMI, BIM and GIS for building and community energy system simulation, to report on results of the IEA EBC Annex 60, and to organize its continuation as the IBPSA Project 1. GENSIM was sponsored by IBPSA France and attended by 65 participants.

Slides, instructions and models of all training sessions are free available at https://github.com/ibpsa/project1/wiki/2016-10-24-gensim-agenda.

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Attendees of the GENSIM workshop.

GENSIM scientific school

Following the completion of the research phase of Annex 60, we invite you to the GENSIM scientific school that will be held on October 24th until October 28th in Porticcio in Corsica (France) for hands-on training of Modelica, FMI, BIM and GIS developed within Annex 60, to present the main results obtained in Annex 60 and to plan for the upcoming IBPSA Project 1. For more information, see the GENSIM announcement.

IEA EBC Newsletter features Annex 60

The IEA EBC Newsletter features Annex 60 and how it supports the next generation of EnergyPlus and Modelica/FMI-based virtual prototyping from an HVAC manufacturer’s perspective.

May 2016: Draft workplan for IBPSA project 1 and registration form posted

The draft workplan for the continuation of IEA EBC Annex 60 as the IBPSA Project 1 is now posted. Potential participants are asked to express their interest by filling out the registration form.

For questions, please contact Michael Wetter (MWetter@lbl.gov) and Christoph van Treeck (treeck@e3d.rwth-aachen.de).

May 2016: 6th expert meeting of research phase

On May 9-11, 2016, the Annex 60 held its sixth expert meeting of the research phase at the University of Miami, FL, USA.

The main focus of the meeting was the organization and writing of the final Annex report, and further advancing the planning of the IBPSA Project 1, for which a link for registration will be posted soon.

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Attendees of the 6th expert meeting at University of Miami, USA.

December 2015: IBPSA Board approved continuation of Annex 60

On December 10, 2015 in Hyderabad, the Board of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) approved to start project 1 “BIM/GIS and Modelica framework for building and community energy system design and operation” in June 2017 for a duration of 5 years, run by the co-operating agents Michael Wetter and Christoph van Treeck.

This will be the first project executed under the umbrella of IBPSA. It gives the opportunity to continue parts of Annex 60 when it terminates in June 2017. Detailed planning will start in Spring 2016, and the project is expected to officially start in June 2017. Interested participants should contact Michael Wetter (mwetter@lbl.gov) and Christoph van Treeck (treeck@e3d.rwth-aachen.de).

Proposal text: ibpsa_annex60_proposal.pdf.

October 2015: Posted papers

Papers that resulted from the Annex 60 collaboration are now posted here.

September 2015: 5th expert meeting of research phase

On September 16, 17, 18, 2015, Annex 60 held its fifth export meeting in Leuven, Belgium, which was attended by 50 people. The afternoon of the 3rd day was a public outreach session sponsored by IBPSA-NVL and attended by various building designers.

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Attendees of 5th expert meeting at Leuven, Belgium.

April 2015: 4th expert meeting of research phase

On April 21 and 22, 2015, Annex 60 held its 4th expert meeting which was hosted by the IRUSE research group at the Department of Civil Engineering in NUI Galway, Ireland. The meeting was attended by 53 people.

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Attendees of 4th expert meeting at Galway, Ireland.

September 2014: Annex 58/60 public seminar series

On September 17, 2014, LBNL hosted a public seminar series with presentations from Annex 58, Annex 60, and Annex 66, as well as representatives from energy legislature and design firms.

The event was attended by 80 people and all presentations are available from here.

September 2014: 3rd expert meeting of research phase

On September 15, 16 and 17, 2014, LBNL hosted the third expert meeting in Berkeley, California. The meeting was attended by 50 people. During the first two days, the development of the Annex60 Modelica library was further planned, with a focus on benchmarking. The development of FMI interfaces and co-simulation master algorithm was discussed and a presentation by Stavros Tripakis from UC Berkeley about determinate composition of FMUs for co-simulation was given. The work on Building Information Models to Modelica was further coordinated as was the development of a Python library for workflow automation. Several case studies that use Modelica for buildings, community energy systems and during real-time operation were presented.

On the morning of September 17, a joint meeting with Annex 58 was held to discuss R&D needs at the intersection of full scale experimentation and computer simulation for very low energy building technologies.

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Attendees of third expert meeting at Berkeley, CA.

March 2014: 2nd expert meeting of research phase

On March 8 and 9, 2014, Annex 60 held its second expert meeting in Lund, Sweden, prior to the 10th Modelica conference. The meeting was attended by 50 people. During the meeting, the design of a common Modelica library was further advanced. Information exchange regarding FMI-based master algorithms and regarding the implementation of FMI interfaces in building simulators took place. A first case study for Building Information Models to Modelica was specified. The layout and next steps for the development of a shared Python library was discussed. Several presentations about Modelica and FMI use during the design and operation of buildings and community energy systems were held.

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Attendees of second expert meeting at Lund, Sweden.

August 2013: 1st expert meeting of research phase

On August 23 and 24, 2013, Annex 60 held its first expert meeting of the research phase. The meeting was held in Aix-les-Bains, France, collocated with the Building Simulation conference. 54 participants from 12 countries participated in sharing their research results and planning the next steps.

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Attendees of first expert meeting at Aix-les-Bains, France.

June 2013: IEA Executive Commitee Approves Working Phase

On June 14, 2013, the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC) Programme approved switching from the preparation phase to the three-year working phase, taking effect on July 1, 2013.

March 2013: First expert meeting of planning phase

On March 11 to 13, 2013, Annex 60 held its first expert meeting, hosted by RWTH Aachen University, Germany. 48 participants from 9 countries contributed towards finalizing the work plans of the Annex. It has been decided that the Annex will have two main subtasks: Subtask 1 will further develop Modelica libraries for building and community energy systems, FMI-based tools for model exchange and co-simulation, and Building Information Model to Modelica translators. Subtask 2 will be devoted to the validation and demonstration of the computing tools developed in Subtask 1. Applications will range from the detailed design of buildings to the design of community energy systems and the use of models in real-time in support of controls and fault detection. Modelica libraries, FMI-based interfaces and tools, and BIM translators developed within Annex 60 will be free and open-source.

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Attendees of the Annex 60 planning meeting at RWTH Aachen.

The next steps will be to finalize the work plan and the official Annex text. The 3-year research phase is expected to start in June 2013. Special presentations will be given at the Building Simulation 2013 conference in Chambéry, France.