Visionary visualisation: Sweco UK joins global partnership to build digital twin design into renewable energy planning

Earlier this year, an exciting kick-off summit took place in Latvia to launch an innovative ‘digital x sustainability’ project, as 19 partners from 11 countries met to develop plans and visions for a potentially transformative reset in the way district-wide energy estates can be planned and designed.

In Europe and beyond we are faced with the challenge of redesigning our existing cities to make them more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and safe, as captured by UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New European Bauhaus initiative.

Developing Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), is a breakthrough way to deal with the issue of urban emissions and applying adaptation and mitigation strategies to climate change, while ensuring that these urban areas generate an annual surplus of renewable energy and net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

To support and accelerate the development of PEDs, the ExPEDite project aims to create and deploy a novel Digital Twin for real-time monitoring, visualisation, and management of district-level energy flow. The ExPEDite project will deliver a suite of replicable modelling tools, allowing stakeholders to analyse planning actions towards positive energy and climate neutrality in a cost-effective manner.

For a recent Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Partner News feature, we sat down with Dinos Ipiotis, MSc, MCIBSE. to explore the aims and opportunities of ExPEDite as it looks to make ‘digital’ the default setting in society-scale net zero strategy.

Dinos explains: “Our ultimate collective challenge in the ExPEDite partnership is to enable the planned creation and management of, as the name suggests, PEDs – Positive Energy Districts. These are, in short, urban or extra-urban areas capable of generating, using and distributing energy in various forms to a wider grid.

Specifically, we need to create and deploy a novel digital twin that allows for real-time monitoring, visualisation, and management of district-level energy flows. The idea is that this, as part of a suite of replicable modelling tools, will enable stakeholders to analyse planning actions towards scalable creation of PEDs cost-effectively, by enabling evidence-based decision-making."

Conceptually, the digital twin will allow for a holistic view of district-level energy flows and enables stakeholders to make informed decisions based on real-time data and highly engaging simulations. This approach will bring together city planners, local authorities and citizens in a dynamic ecosystem of active collaboration that is currently difficult to facilitate where data-fed visualisations are not available.

Dinos continues: “One of the most exciting aspects of this project for me is the potential for enabling communities to create a positive impact on their energy efficiency and overall sustainability. To create a successful outcome, ExPEDite needs to develop solutions that are both ethically sustainable and socially acceptable. This enables the use of digitalisation as the keystone to a sustainable built environment, bringing together the three key pillars of sustainability: People, Planet and Prosperity.

I’m especially looking forward to co-designing the technical solution, and developing the necessary software components and tools ‘under the bonnet’. The opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology and contribute to the development of sustainable energy solutions is always extremely motivating when you envisage the difference it has on the power to make on a societal scale."

In summary, Dinos reflects: “R&D initiatives like ExPEDite are important because they enable innovation and contribute to the development of sustainable communities. They bring together different stakeholders, including researchers, industry experts and policymakers to collaborate and address complex challenges, but challenges which are focused on a tangible human-oriented outcome. The best part of it all is that these initiatives help to advance knowledge, technology and practices in various fields.

Projects such as ExPEDite will enable us to shift away from the narrow focus of ‘Net Zero Buildings’ to a more holistic ‘Net Zero Human’ approach and help end the practice of siloed net zero thinking which can too often result in unintentional pushing of carbon from ‘my domain’ to someone else’s, often increasing the overall carbon footprint in the process. The information created by a PED and made accessible through a digital twin interface will enable more holistic insight into the behaviour of the built assets and the humans living and working within them.”

Read the full IET Partner News article at https://engx.theiet.org/b/partner-news/posts/visionary-visualisation-sweco-joins-global-expedite-partnership-to-build-digital-twin-design-into-renewable-energy-planning

For more information, contact Dinos.Ipiotis@sweco.co.uk.

Sweco’s fellow project partners are: Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte (LV), National Technical University of Athens (GR), Interuniversity research centre of public economics – University of Padova (IT), Digital + Sustainable Innovation Lab – Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (PT), VSB – Technical University of Ostrava (CZ), Laurea University of Applied Sciences (FI), EXUS AI Labs (GR), Eviden (SP), Plegma Labs (EL), Tecnalia (SP), Sweco UK Limited (UK), UpcoMinds Cyprus (CY), Deloitte Consulting S.r.l. S.B. (IT), Technological Platform Energy Security Czech Republic (CZ), Riga Digital Agency (LV), Rīgas valstspilsētas pašvaldības aģentūra “Rīgas enerģētikas aģentūra” (LV), The Lisbon Council asbl (PT), Open & Agile Smart Cities (BE), DATI Group (LV).

The project is funded by the European Commission. Sweco is applying for funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Horizon Guarantee Scheme.