Case Study: Johnson Controls achieves fast, accurate early-stage energy modeling for its Shanghai triple-certified HQ with Autodesk Insight

Energy modeling accelerates high-performance building design

Johnson Controls built a new Asia‑Pacific headquarters in Shanghai — the first triple‑certified green building in China — and needed a fast, scalable way to run early‑stage and ongoing energy modeling so the facility’s operations would remain sustainable. To move beyond a resource‑intensive DOE‑2/eQUEST workflow and enable real‑time performance prediction, Johnson Controls turned to Autodesk tools (Autodesk’s Architecture, Engineering & Construction Collection, Revit, FormIt and the cloud‑based Insight energy analysis service) to create an EnergyPlus model from its BIM data.

Using an Autodesk workflow (FormIt → Revit → Insight) the team quickly generated an EnergyPlus model and used Insight’s slider‑based interface to evaluate 24 performance factors. Autodesk’s solution produced results that were “incredibly close” to the detailed eQUEST predictions, reduced the time required in conceptual design, and gave Johnson Controls a model to support ongoing commissioning and retrofit decision‑making for better operational performance.

Johnson Controls

Clay Nesler

Vice President of Global Sustainability and Industry Initiatives