Digital Twin as the Basis for Optimizing Energy Supply in Industrial Applications

The kick-off meeting of the four-year lead project “Digital Energy Twin” coordinated by AEE INTEC took place on December 2, 2019 in Leoben/Hinterberg, the headquarters of AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft. Besides AT & S and Eberle Automatische Systeme GmbH & Co KG, nine partners from digital research, energy research and manufacturing in Austria and one from Germany are also on board. The project, sponsored by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund, supports industrial companies in optimizing the design and operation of their energy supply systems. For the first time, solutions are also to be found for the conflicting priorities between volatile renewable energy supply and its efficient use for fluctuating energy demands at process level in industrial applications.

Using the digital twin method, detailed models for selected energy-related processes and renewable technologies in manufacturing are developed and validated. The focus is on the development of an optimization approach based on standardized examples, but also on real applications in the manufacturing industry. The aim is to make the developed tools modular and flexible in order to reduce costs and investment risks of renewable energy systems on the one hand and to significantly increase their role in industrial processes on the other. In addition, the method is to be used as a completely new training approach under the name “Energy Manager 4.0”.

The innovative simulation software twin from Eberle Automatische Systeme GmbH & Co KG now makes it possible for the first time to simulate and subsequently optimize the complex interaction between a wide variety of physical domains in combination with real control components and SCADA systems.