Design Simulation Tool for Building Performance and Efficiency: The African Satellite Control Centre Case Study, Gharyan, Libya

Abstract

Libya's built environment accounts for roughly 60% of national power demand, making the construction sector the largest contributor to CO₂ emissions and a persistent obstacle to energy security. Decades of unregulated development, an overstretched transmission network, and the absence of enforceable building energy standards have produced routine daily power cuts. Applying Building Performance Simulation (BPS) at the design stage represents a cost-efficient corrective lever. This study investigates the energy performance of the African Satellite Control Centre (ASCC) in Gharyan, Libya, a specialized public technical facility with high internal load density comparable to data centers, which consume 10 to 50 times the energy per unit area of conventional offices. A three-stage simulation sequence in DesignBuilder V7.1 with EnergyPlus addresses peak winter heating, peak summer cooling, and complete annual energy and carbon accounting. The 2,083.68 m² facility consumes 198,769.34 kWh annually (95.37 kWh/m²). Operational cooling is the dominant end-use at 78,472.74 kWh annually. Operational CO₂ emissions reach 120.45 × 10³ kg per year; embodied carbon totals 489,558.50 kgCO₂ (549,212.20 kgCO₂eq). Against ASHRAE Standard 55-2004, 7,813.5 hours fall outside acceptable thermal comfort bounds. The East facade presents concentrated vulnerability with a 50.91% window-to-wall ratio. The paper's contribution is a fully documented, reproducible workflow integrating four analyses energy, thermal comfort, daylighting, and CFD for a high-load-density technical facility, a combination not previously reported for Libya or North Africa, offering a transferable decision-support framework for comparable facilities where simulation practice remains limited.