Chengxuan Li
中文

Project

EnergyAtlas.io

A city-scale utility digital twin and energy simulation platform, built in C#/.NET, whose simulation, geometry, data, and visualization architecture I lead.

Period
Jan 2025 – Present
Status
Active
Affiliation
Environmental Systems Lab
Type
Simulation · Software · Engineering
Technologies
C# · ASP.NET · Python · DuckDB
  • Energy Modeling
  • Machine Learning
  • Optimization
  • Digital twin
  • Smart-meter data
  • SCADA
  • AMI
  • Load forecasting
EnergyAtlas.io interface showing 3D city maps, building layers, scenario charts, and template-assignment controls.
EnergyAtlas.io software interface.

Problem

City-scale energy planning needs building-level detail at utility scale. Building models, geospatial context, measured smart-meter observations, and physical simulation have to work together in one consistent system rather than in separate tools.

System / Method

EnergyAtlas.io is a city-scale utility digital twin and energy simulation platform built in C#/.NET. Its core architecture has four parts:

  • Simulation — physical building energy simulation at urban scale.
  • Geometry — building models and the geometric processing they require.
  • Data — geospatial data and smart-meter observations integrated with the models.
  • Visualization — presentation of results across the city.

Scalable pipelines cover LiDAR processing, shading analysis, time-series processing, and large-scale urban simulations.

EnergyAtlas.io interface showing 3D city maps, building layers, scenario charts, and template-assignment controls.

My Contribution

As Lead Developer since January 2025, I lead development of the platform, designed its core simulation, geometry, data, and visualization architecture, and built the LiDAR, shading-analysis, time-series, and large-scale simulation pipelines.

Technical Details

Details of the simulation engine, data architecture, calibration workflow, and scalability are pending source material; the sections above reflect the verified project description.

Platform Demonstrations

Urban Digital Twin Builder

Combines tax records, parcels, zoning data, LiDAR, permits, and meter information in one workflow. Automated format conversion and attribute joins support localized archetypes and usage schedules, producing detailed urban models from individual buildings to city scale.

City-Scale Energy Simulation

Runs hourly, ISO-compliant 5R1C simulations 150 times faster than traditional baselines. The workflow forecasts energy demand and carbon emissions at building and district scales with minimal data requirements.

Renewables Integration

Models rooftop photovoltaics with voxel shading and ray marching, alongside geothermal systems and district-scale energy networks. The resulting views show how on-site and off-site resources contribute to urban energy supply.

Outputs

Presentations

  1. Jun 2026

    City-scale digital twins for building energy modeling and carbon reduction planning

    Conference talk · Cesium Developer Conference 2026, Philadelphia, PA

Activity

All news →

  1. Nemetschek Innovation Award, second place

  2. Building energy model offers cities decarbonization roadmap

  3. Smart Heat: Digital twin helps college town move toward carbon neutrality. Are big cities next?

  4. How "Digital Twins" Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification