By Mark Freeman, offer manager digital buildings at Schneider Electric
DIGITAL twin technology is enjoying a well-deserved moment in the sun; it is a truly revolutionary and somewhat futuristic solution that encompasses multiple applications and industries.
However, whilst several industries are already using digital twin technology with remarkable success, it would seem its adoption is lagging in the building space, particularly in South Africa.
It has therefore become vitally important that the buildings industry educates itself and starts adopting digital twin technology to tangibly demonstrate how much can be gained by implementing the technology.
The benefits to buildings
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding and the building industry will certainly need some hard evidence to start adopting digital twin technology.
Fortunately, the benefits are numerous and concrete. For one, a digital twin is the digital representation of a physical environment, and in the case of the buildings industry, it is a digital duplicate of a BMS (Building Management System). It is the virtual replica of the building’s state, in real-time.
In the case of Schneider Electric, our EcoStruxure Building Advisor has an integrated digital twin which, unlike a rules-based framework that is complicated to set up and difficult to maintain, is simpler to implement and more sustainable over a building’s lifecycle changes.
Digital twin technology offers the following benefits:
- Through automation and continuous monitoring of all key BMS system data points, it identifies issues and facilitates proactive maintenance, helping to extend asset life and reduce reactive servicing and repair.
- It continuously learns and improves the accuracy and quality of diagnostics to generate more actionable insights, contributing to superior energy savings and improved occupant comfort
- For enterprise customers with a global portfolio of buildings, EcoStruxure Building Advisor’s digital twin can be deployed for any building type, agnostic to the BMS running the buildings’ HVAC system for example.
With older BMS contracts, technicians often have to visit sites which is costly and , in some instances, unproductive.
With digital twin models, facility managers and owners can quickly pinpoint faults and execute the necessary maintenance.
A BMS’s digital twin can also use data insights to highlight where capital expenditure is needed to solve wider systems issues.
Quantifiable KPIs, such as energy savings or reduction of comfort issues, can be clearly communicated via dashboards and reporting to all stakeholders.
Ultimately, a digital twin enables users to consolidate data, identify trends and detect building errors, a major plus in an industry that constantly deals with “nuisance alarms” without pinpointing what is the real cause of continuous errors popping up.
Digital twin technology is not replacing the BMS but providing an invaluable enhancement that will allow buildings to function optimally and sustainably.
