UK town creates digital twin to help deliver net zero future
Source: Smart Cities World
Digital twin model of Warrington is made up of 29 separate areas and aims to identify energy, carbon and cost-efficiency pathways to deliver a net-zero future.
The UK town of Warrington in northwest England has developed a digital twin to help identify the energy, carbon and cost-efficiency measures required across its buildings and energy systems to deliver a net-zero future.
The town worked with consultants from climate technology firm IES on the project, which is part of the Rewire programme, funded by the UK innovation agency Innovate UK.
Climate emergency
The project to identify the data-informed pathways to net-zero was led by charity Pure Leapfrog with input from Warrington Borough Council. Warrington Borough covers an area of 70 square miles in the northwest of England between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool and is home to around 200,000 residents. The council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and is working on a variety of initiatives to shape and guide its journey towards net-zero emissions.
The digital twin model of the borough is made up of 29 separate areas and was created using data from various sources including the council itself, the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) database, and local distribution network operators.
The various data streams fed into the development of the digital twin and included details such as geolocated building geometry, building use and age, building characteristics and electric network infrastructures.
“Using the model to full effect will allow the council to see various possible optimisation scenarios and understand the potential return on investment for associated decarbonisation initiatives”
The information from each of the 29 areas was individually modelled in IES’ masterplanning and urban design tool, Intelligent Community Design (iCD). This analyses and monitors how the community may evolve over time and tracks the environmental impact of any changes such as population growth, the installation of renewable energy systems and changes to the massing and form of buildings.
These 29 models were then collated into one single digital twin hosted on IES Intelligent Community Information Model (iCIM) platform, which connects each of its digital twin simulation tools.