| lattice systems and discrete networks with dissipative interactions are successfully employed as meso - scale models of heterogeneous solids . as the application scale generally is much larger than that of the discrete links , physically relevant simulations are computationally expensive . the quasicontinuum ( qc ) method is a multiscale approach that reduces the computational cost of direct numerical simulations by fully resolving complex phenomena only in regions of interest while coarsening elsewhere . in previous work ( @xcite , _ j. mech . phys . solids _ 64 , 154169 , 2014 ) , the originally conservative qc methodology was generalized to a virtual - power - based qc approach that includes local dissipative mechanisms . in this contribution , the virtual - power - based qc method is reformulated from a variational point of view , by employing the energy - based variational framework for rate - independent processes ( @xcite , _ rate - independent systems : theory and application _ , springer - verlag , 2015 ) . by construction it is shown that the qc method with dissipative interactions can be expressed as a minimization problem of a properly built energy potential , providing solutions equivalent to those of the virtual - power - based qc formulation . the theoretical considerations are demonstrated on three simple examples . for them we verify energy consistency , quantify relative errors in energies , and discuss errors in internal variables obtained for different meshes and two summation rules . lattice model , quasicontinuum method , variational formulation , plasticity , multiscale modelling |