Enabling Positive Energy Districts through a Planning and Management Digital Twin

Enhancing energy sustainability requires novel technologies and initiatives to optimise energy flows, storage, and utilisation. Managing energy flows at the district level is a complex endeavour, requiring significant data and effort. The EU-funded EXPEDITE project aims to revolutionise this process by developing an innovative digital twin solution. This solution will enable real-time monitoring, visualisation, and management of energy flows at the district level. To achieve this goal, the project will provide a suite of modelling tools for analysing and planning changes to energy flows, aiming to achieve positive energy outcomes cost-effectively. Additionally, these tools will facilitate the optimisation of building stock, transportation, energy production, and demand while ensuring adaptability to changing circumstances.

Objetive
ExPEDite aims to create and deploy a novel Digital Twin (DT) for real-time monitoring, visualization, and management of district-level energy flows. The project will deliver a suite of replicable modeling tools, allowing stakeholders to analyze planning actions towards positive energy and climate neutrality in a cost-effective manner. The tools will be able to model the district’s energy production and demand, building stock performance, optimize for flexibility and simulate mobility and transport. The DT’s design-platform will analyze various what-if planning actions, aiding energy and urban planners’ evidence-based decision-making processes, while its run-time engine will optimize the districts energy utilization efficiency. The DT will follow a modular open architecture to support multi-sectoral and multi-organizational stakeholder requirements. By employing gamification and co-creation approaches, the project will enhance public awareness and engagement in energy efficiency. The ExPEDite DT will be applied to a district in Riga, Latvia, and will provide practical guidelines, reusable models, algorithms, and training materials to aid other cities in replicating the DT for their districts, fostering widespread adoption of sustainable energy practices.