To decarbonise the energy system by the year 2050, it is crucial that decision-makers are equipped with the insights they need to ensure their decisions are effective and influential.

The challenge of providing relevant and timely information is compounded by the increasing decentralisation of the energy system, with more assets interacting with it now than ever.

Digitalisation offers a new opportunity to model the system at a high level of detail, enabling accurate monitoring of the predicted system changes and impact to consumers.

Digital Twins have long been spoken about as one of the key solutions arising from digitalisation, empowering their users with the information and insights they need to make more informed decisions.

The Challenge

Digital Twins are becoming more and more prevalent within a multitude of sectors and potentially offer significant capabilities to address key aspects of the question: ‘How do we strategically decarbonise energy?’.

The Energy System Digital Twin Demonstrator Project was commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Central Modelling Team and follows on from the Energy System Digital Twin Feasibility Study, which provided initial recommendations to stimulate wider collaboration to scope and create a demonstrator to develop and validate the concepts.

The Solutions

Over 12 months, the project was tasked with developing two proof-of concept demonstrators: a visual demonstrator developed in a collaboration between Energy Systems Catapult, the Alan Turing Institute and CityScape Digital, and a technical demonstrator developed using some of the Catapult’s core modelling capabilities.