Vishal Garg

Dr. Vishal Garg is a University Chair Professor and the Director of Indorama Ventures Center for Clean Energy. He works on various aspects of energy efficiency in buildings, such as building energy simulation for designing energy-efficient buildings and automation and controls for efficient operations. His current focus is on Smart Energy Homes. He is developing and field testing a Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS) to understand its impact on energy savings and demand reduction. This work also includes psychological evaluations and sociological approaches to understanding people’s energy behaviour. He is also involved in policy-making and market research of smart energy homes and is incubating a start-up to facilitate lab to market.

Prof Garg is enthusiastic about cool surfaces for mitigating the impact of Urban Heat Islands, thereby reducing cooling energy consumption, offsetting global warming, and saving the lives of the urban poor, especially during heatwaves. He has impacted the deployment of over one million square feet of cool surfaces in the country and is currently supporting the development of a cool roof policy for Telangana with a target of 100 sq. km of cool roofs in Hyderabad. He is the recipient of the inaugural Dr Arthur Rosenfeld Urban Cooling Achievement Award - an award established by the Global Cool Cities Alliance to honour the legacy of Dr Rosenfeld’s advocacy for cooler buildings, cooler cities and a cooler planet.

He serves on the editorial board of well-known journals, is a member of several national and international academic committees, was the founding president and board member of the International Building Performance Simulation Association’s (IBPSA) Indian affiliate, is an executive committee member of Alliance for an Energy-Efficient Economy and is a panellist for a chapter on sustainability in the National Building Code of India. As a task force member of ISHRAE, he has contributed to the Covid-19 guidelines on air conditioning and ventilation for healthcare facilities. He is also a project committee voting member in the ASHRAE’s Standing Standard Project Committee 90.2: Energy Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings. He is a Fellow of IBPSA-world, the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and the Indian Society of Lighting Engineers. Garg also has a US patent for his research on Transactive-Energy based Task Controls which he plans to productise.

He teaches Building Energy Simulation, Green Buildings, and Illumination Engineering. He is a lead author of a workbook on building energy simulation.

Research Projects:

●   Residential building energy demand reduction in India (RESIDE), PI, 2018-2022.

The Indo-UK project – RESIDE, in partnership with OBU UK, supports the improvement of living conditions for millions of Indian citizens through establishing the knowledge base to develop a residential code for high-quality, low-energy housing across all five climatic zones in India. Leading the following work packages: Large-scale monitoring campaign and field survey using low-cost data collection methods; Design, trial, evaluate and refine Smart Home Energy Management System for monitoring, disaggregating, communicating and managing electricity demand; Residential building energy code, compliance tool and implementation roadmap.

●   Development and performance analysis of double pane semi-transparent solar photovoltaic window/facade system, Co-PI, 2017-2020.

The objective of this project is to develop a new semi-transparent solar photovoltaic (STPV) and spectrally selective glass-based window/façade system. The novelty of this project is the development of a new window system to facilitate maximum power generation along with minimum energy consumption for visual and thermal comfort in a built environment. Leading the development of control algorithms for external/internal blinds that optimize the performance of the proposed new system and at the same time utilize maximum daylighting and minimizing energy consumption of the internal task lighting.

●   Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD), Co-PI, 2012-2017.

The overall objective of CBERD was to build a solid foundation for technologies research and development, knowledge, workforce development, and collaboration to position both the U.S. and India toward a future of clean energy economy and high-performance energy-efficient buildings. Lead the tasks related to Simulation and Modelling, Integrated Sensor and Controls, and Cool roof.

●   Controlled experiment for estimating the energy-saving potential and indoor thermal comfort improvement by use of high albedo surfaces on pitched concrete roof, Co-PI, 2015-2017.

The objective of this project was to develop a test platform to understand the effects of high albedo roofs and to test future materials and technologies developed by industry. Performance monitoring of cool roofs in test huts was undertaken in two different climatic zones of India. Using this ground data, a simulation model was created using the EnergyPlus energy simulation program which can then be used to update the cool roof calculator.

●   “Cool Roofs for Rural Poor: Saving Energy, Beating the Heat Affordably” under World Bank Innovation Challenge Program, PI, 2014.

●   Earth System Cooling with Reflective Roofs: Experimental Verification and Model-based Evaluation for Selected Cities, Co-PI, 2011-2012.

Policy Support:

●      Supporting the development of a section on Smart Home for Eco Niwas Samhita 2021 Part -II (a national level energy conservation building code for residences) for Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)

●      Technical Assistance in development of ‘Making Telangana a Cool State - State-Wide Cool Roofs Program’

●      Providing technical assistance in the development and implementation of ECBC at the national level and state level. AP and Telangana are the first states to implement ECBC in India.

●      Supporting the development of standards on Smart Technology (IoT) in the field of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning for the Bureau of Indian Standards MED 03

●      Supporting the development and implementation of Green Building Rating Systems (eg. Green Homes, Green Factories) by Indian Green Building Council

•    Fellow, International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) – 2019

•    Dr Arthur H Rosenfeld Urban Cooling Achievement Award – 2018

•    Fellow, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) – 2016

•    Life Fellow, Indian Society of Lighting Engineers (ISLE) – 2013

List of Publications: Google Scholar - Vishal Garg

- System and Apparatus for and Methods of Control of Localized Energy Use in a Building Using Price Set Points.US Patent No.: US10496066B2, Date: 03-Dec-2019. Inventors:  Vishal Garg, Niranjan Reddy, Sam Babu Godithi, Richard Brown, Christian Kohler, & Reshma Singh 

- System and Method for Monitoring and Controlling Power Consumption in a Local Environment. Date of filing: Aug 23, 2017, Indian Application number: 201744029921. Inventors:  Vishal Garg, Niranjan Reddy, Sam Babu Godithi, Richard Brown, Christian Kohler, and Reshma Singh

Journal Editorial Board:                                                      

• Journal of Building Performance Simulation (JBPS) by Taylor & Francis
• Journal of Energy Informatics by SpringerOpen
• Building Services Engineering Research & Technology (International Advisory Board)

Journal Special Issue Guest Editor:

• ‘Urban Heat Island Countermeasures', in the journal Urban Climate, edited by Hashem Akbari and Vishal Garg
• “Heat Island Countermeasure’, in the journal of Energy and Buildings, edited by Hashem Akbari and Vishal Garg

Board member:

• Board of Advisors - Glass Academy, India
• Board member and founding president of the Indian Chapter of IBPSA

Core Committee member:

• ISHRAE India Building Energy Performance Standard (IIBEPS)
• IGBC Green Homes and Green Factory rating systems, IGBC Accredited Professional (AP) exam.

Panel Member:

• Panel introducing a new chapter "Part 11- Approach to Sustainability" in the National Building Code of India, by BIS.

Advisor:

• Advisory member of ISHRAE RAMA standards development committee for:
• Performance Rating and Testing of Chillers in India
• Performance Rating and Testing of VRF system in India

Board of Studies:

• Department of Building Technologies & Services, JNAFAU, Hyderabad
• Department of Digital Technologies, JNAFAU, Hyderabad
• Building Technology and facilities, School of Planning and Architecture, YSR Architecture and Fine Arts University, Kadapa.

Committee member:

• Executive Committee member, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE)
• Project Committee Voting Member in the Standing Standard Project Committee 90.2: Energy Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings of ASHRAE
• Indian Indoor Environmental Quality Standard - 2016, developed by ISHRAE.
• IGBC Green Products Certification Standard for Lighting System
• IBPSA conference committee

Scientific committee member:

• International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands (IC2UHI), 2014 (Venice), 2016 (Singapore)
• Asia conference of International Building Performance Simulation Association (ASim) 2016 (Korea), 2018 (Hong Kong)
• 9th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality Ventilation & Energy Conservation in Buildings (IAQVEC) 2016 (Korea) 
• Roomvent & Ventilation Conference 2018 (Finland)

Technical committee member:

• IGBC Green Products Certification Standard for Lighting System
• 2nd National Conference of IBPSA-India 2012, (Jaipur) on Simulation of Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Better Built Environment
• ACM e-energy 2017 (Hong Kong), 2018 (Germany), 2019 (USA), 2020 (Australia), 2021 (Italy)
• INSPIRE (International Symposium to Promote Innovation and Research in Energy Efficiency) Nov 2017 (Jaipur)

Organizing committee member:

• 14th IBPSA International Building Simulation Conference - Building Simulation 2015 in Hyderabad (Conference Chair)
• 5th International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands (IC2UHI) 02 - 04 December 2019. (Organizing chair)

Task Force member:

• IMA HBI- ISHRAE COVID-19 Guidance Document for Air-conditioning and Ventilation in Healthcare Facilities
• ISHRAE COVID-19 Guidance Document for Air-conditioning and Ventilation