A comprehensive review on digital twins for smart energy management system

Abstract

Energy systems digitalisation represents the energy sector's future, and Digital Twins represent the most advanced and complete way to monitor and optimally manage a complex system such as the upcoming solutions. Those latter will comprehend several energy generators, traditional and/or from renewable energy sources (RESs), different energy storage systems using several energy vectors and that interconnect different energy-consuming sectors (power, thermal, transport sectors) and that fully exploit the potential synergies offered by such interconnected system. Nevertheless, since the first conceptualisation of digital twins in the first years of the 21st century, its use has not started yet for different reasons that are affecting the adoption of this game-changer approach. Hence, what are the main barriers that are holding back the adoption of digital twins in smart energy systems? The present review paper answers this research question while discussing the case studies that can be found in literature and analysing the different approaches and the system architectures that have been tested or simply idealised. This paper provides a basis for future research that aims at applying the digital twin concept in the energy sector and particularly for power grid management. It deals with the challenges of big data management, the ones related to real-time measurements and continuous communication between the real-world system and its digital twin, the investment for measuring systems, the issues connected with the use of large data centres and the correlated energy-related challenges and doubts. The review analyses the challenges that have been encountered so far, the proposed solutions and the opportunities that such a 'work in progress' topic offers.

Spatial Modelling Analysis for Potential Expansion of Cipanas City Candidate Area as Autonomous City

“…DT system was proposed based on the integration of software such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and GIS (Agostinelli et al, 2022;Piras & Muzi, 2024). The ability to accurately forecast energy needs facilitates efficient and sustainable infrastructure planning (Lamagna et al, 2021). By utilising this technology, Cipanas City can more effectively optimise resources and plan environmentally friendly development.…”

“…DT system assists in updating and improving existing infrastructure, ensuring that changes made are based on accurate data and modelling (Banihashemi et al, 2024). Pagani et al ( 2019) and Lamagna et al (2021) proposed a very detailed method to efficiently manage cities. The DT model was formulated for most cities and included all physical elements.…”

A Review on Digital Twin Technology in Smart Grid, Transportation System and Smart City: Challenges and Future

“…As mentioned, DT technology enables real-time monitoring of renewable energy resources, on account of this technology can resolve the real-time operation and monitoring challenges [30]. In [31], the authors optimized the management of wind farms by presenting wind farm DT, their performance evaluation, and health management. In [32], DT is used to display and process as well as evaluate the performance of energy storage systems in the virtual environment.…”

Adoption of Technology Platforms in the Electric Power Industry: New Opportunities

“…An example of platform utilization for asset management is the Cablewalker platform for robotic power line inspection that is being developed by the authors [19]. The platform enables the creation of an exact digital 3D model of a grid facility -a digital twin [20], containing information about the condition of every key element. A digital twin, in its turn, makes it possible to effectively manage the condition of grid assets that are hard-to-access for technical reasons.…”