Michael Wetter

Michael Wetter

Computational Senior Scientist/Engineer
510-685-8293

Bio

Michael Wetter is a Staff Scientist at the Simulation Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). His research includes integrating building performance simulation tools into the research process, as well as their use for design and operation. He is leading the development of Spawn of EnergyPlus, a next-generation simulation engine for building and district energy and control systems, OpenBuildingControl, a project that digitizes the control delivery process, and the Modelica Buildings Library, the largest Modelica library for building energy and control systems. He has also been developing the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed software for co-simulation and model-based operation, co-simulation tools based on the Functional Mockup Interface standard and the GenOpt optimization program. He is the co-operating agent of IBPSA Project 1 and was co-operating agent of IEA EBC Annex 60, two multinational collaborations that develop new generation computational tools for buildings and community energy systems between 2013 and 2022. Prior to joining LBNL, he led the development of building system models at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC). He did his dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley and at LBNL, where he created the GenOpt optimization program and the BuildOpt building simulation program and where he developed the first building energy optimization technique that provably converges to the optimal building design. He is a recipient of the bi-annual Outstanding Young Contributor Award of IBPSA and of the bi-annual Distinguished Achievements in Building Simulation Award of IBPSA-USA. He is the Chair of the College of Fellows of IBPSA, an IBPSA Fellow, and a member of the Boards of IBPSA and the Modelica North America Users’ Group. He was Treasurer of IBPSA and President of IBPSA-USA.

Education

PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 2004
BS in Energy and Building Technologies, University of Applied Sciences at Luzern, Switzerland, 1995

Awards

Spot: David Blum, Michael Wetter -  November 1st 2023

Publication of three highly impactful journal articles on BOPTEST, the Modelica Buildings Library and the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed.

Spot: Michael Wetter -  March 15th 2022

Developed the lab wide Engineering Classification and guidelines for the Engineer career path, promotion and hire process.

IBPSA-USA 2020 Award for Distinguished Achievement in Building Simulation -  September 23rd 2020

The IBPSA-USA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Building Simulation award recognizes an individual who has a distinguished record of contributions to the field of building performance simulation, over a period of 15 or more years.

Best Paper Award at the 2014 IBPSA-Germany Conference -  September 23rd 2014

Marco Bonvini, Michael Wetter and Thierry Nouidui from the Simulation Research Group obtained the best paper award for their contribution "A Modelica package for building-to-electrical grid integration" at the IBPSA-Germany conference. The paper was selected among 93 peer-reviewed submissions. It presents an open-source free library in the Modelica language that contains models for different types of sources, loads, storage equipment, and transmission lines for electric power. The models can be used to represent DC, AC one-phase, and AC-three phases balanced and unbalanced systems. The models have been successfully validated against the IEEE four nodes test feeder. An example shows how the models can be used to study the integration and control of renewable energy sources in a electric distribution grid.

Most Cited Papers, Journal of Building Performance Simulation -  September 18th 2013

The Department of Energy-funded scientific paper "Co-simulation of building energy and control systems with the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed," authored by Michael Wetter, which appeared in the Journal of Building Performance Simulation, Vol. 4(3), 2011, was in 2012 the journal's most cited paper. Over the past three years, another DOE-funded publication "Modelica-based modelling and simulation to support research and development in building energy and control systems," also authored by Michael Wetter, is the second most cited article. It appeared in Vol. 2(2), 2009.

Journal and Editorial Board Memberships

Journal of Building Performance, Editorial Board

Publications

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