Digital Twin for improving energy efficiency, comfort, and use of spaces in existing buildings

CT Solutions has participated in the Powertwin project in collaboration with Smartech Cluster, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BIM6D, Innovasturias Cluster, and the company Cactus.

This project, through Digital Twin technology, proposes the deployment of key solutions for improving sustainability and energy efficiency in buildings.

This will be achieved through the management of intelligent systems for monitoring, controlling, and optimizing sustainability and energy management indicators based on Level(s) and nZEB frameworks, thereby improving space and system usage while facilitating accessibility and usability of operations and maintenance processes.

The main strategies to be implemented in the project are as follows:

• Digitization of physical assets and real-time data monitoring using BIM, laser scanning, and photogrammetry to create a digital twin that integrates data and simulates the behavior of systems and energy. Additionally, specialized energy modeling software will be used.
• Generation, storage, distribution, and conversion of renewable energies such as photovoltaics, among others, to reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Monitoring, analysis, and improvement of key variables of thermal comfort, indoor air quality, noise levels, natural and artificial lighting levels, as well as control of indoor occupancy and space usage based on activities carried out.
• Use of artificial intelligence on collected data through Data Discovering techniques involving exploration of multiple data sources, identification of hidden relationships, and extraction of behavioral patterns from systems, which will be visualized on the digital twin and in business intelligence reports.

In order to demonstrate the project’s objectives, a real installation of an office building on the Terrassa campus of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya will be available.

In essence, POWERTWIN aims to enhance asset performance by creating an intelligent cyber-physical ecosystem, automated, adaptable, and replicable in existing buildings to transform them into energy-efficient, sustainable, and wellness-appropriate assets that also ensure compliance with European nZEB and Level(s) standards.

The project will pave the way for creating and integrating improvement solutions that enable the management of variables affecting users’ hygrothermal comfort levels, as well as the management of space usage through monitoring, control, and planning of activities, space occupancy, and their impact on energy and comfort indicators.