Unlocking Building Potential: The Power of Digital Twins in Revolutionizing Operations & Facility Management

University of Wyoming Campus Heartbeat

In an ever-changing world where anyone anywhere in the world has access to an almost endless amount of information or data, there seems to be an endless number of possibilities to utilize this information. Innovative technologies are being developed every year that alter the world for better or worse. Tech companies are starting all around that seem to be the way to riches. However, how do we decide what technologies have contributed to the “forward” progress of the human species? The criteria to determine such a thing can be very biased based on the point of view. Many technologies have contributed to bettering the health of communities from medical devices, sanitation processes, or pollution control. However, others have made the world more efficient (whether “good” or “bad”), such as food delivery applications, transportation services, or genetic engineering. All these steps towards a new digitally envisioned world start with the efficiencies of our systems physically and figuratively.

Imagining a Digital World through Digital Twin Capabilities

The first twins were first used during the early NASA space missions when they needed to find a way to run simulations, and other various tests on their spacecraft while it was far away in space. The way to do that was to build a physical replica of its physical counterpart. This allowed NASA scientists to perform tests on the spacecraft, helping to predict what might happen in certain scenarios or to be able to know in real-time the performance of the craft. While back then it was a physical replica, virtual replicas have now been utilized in various other industries. Manufacturers of planes, vehicles, watercraft, and various other products developed their own digital twin technologies to envision their product digitally. Allowing engineers to run tests on their soon-to-be products without having to build a physical model. All the way down to the material makeup of the item, these companies can learn how their product will function before they have even manufactured it. What would happen to our plane in a windstorm with 70mph winds? How would the tires of our racecar function on this type of surface? Many other questions can be asked using a digital twin.

Technologies such as this is what leads us towards the digitally envisioned world. Anything can have a digital twin counterpart with the right technology and team to develop it. One of the biggest advantages of a twin comes from its cost-saving capabilities. It presents cost reduction opportunities in almost every aspect. From cutting the need for materials to build a physical model in the beginning, to creating a fully functional digital counterpart that creates a replica of the physical item allowing less errors to be made and rebuilding of a physical model. By the time it comes to build the first physical prototype, a lot of errors have been eliminated due to prior testing with a digital twin. Following the first production of the prototype, further testing and simulations can be run digitally to almost perfect the item by the time mass production begins. The possibilities of this technology amaze me and excites me to say the least.

An industry that has recently become part of my life and the use of digital twin technology, are buildings. A former classmate of mine, Luke Macy (a genius developer), decided to break into this realm of digital twins for buildings. Starting with a project called Campus Heartbeat (Here) designed as a public energy monitoring tool for the community of Laramie and the University of Wyoming. The University now has an even deeper understanding of their energy usage across campus through a comprehensive and visually appealing monitoring tool. As well as the continued development of a digital twin for the campus that facility directors can use to fully comprehend future and past building energy systems.

The significance and impact of digital building twins

Understanding the full capabilities of what a twin does for buildings can be complicated. It might seem like rocket science, I mean I still have a long way to go to completely understanding the technology, but I will try to make this simple, energy systems efficiency. A twin for a building gives information to the full inner workings and current standing of a building. There are several products out there now involving building automation systems (BAS) and building energy management systems (BEMS) which provide great capabilities for controlling and understanding a facilities energy usage. However, it only goes so far. A digital twin is the next step towards perfecting these systems by leveraging the ability to go beyond monitoring and control. A twin as mentioned above can perform simulations, scenario tests, and through machine learning pattern recognition combine with AI, begin to suggest solutions for you.

I had the opportunity to speak with the Director of Facilities, Robert Forister, at Sheridan Memorial Hospital in Sheridan, WY. Sheridan’s hospital has become a premier medical facility over the years and continues to provide exceptional services, which means optimizing their systems is essential to continue to grow including staff, budgeting, healthcare, energy, and more. In this context, facility wide energy systems was the important subject. After speaking with Rob, I found the main driver for becoming energy efficient for the hospital, cost-reduction. A dollar goes a long way in the medical field, so learning to reduce expenses and increase quality of service, like any business, is a priority. Methods already taken by the hospital to reduce energy use includes replacing fluorescent lights with LED’s, upgrading the boiler, and placing variable frequency drives (VFDs) on fan motors.

A prime example of the use case for a digital twin comes from Sheridan’s hospital. Rob and his team must figure out temperatures for each room in the facility. A set point temperature is decided through manual testing costing time, effort, and capital to do so. The set point temperature is set and if a room needs to be warmed or cooled, the air in the room is cycled through the system to be warmed/cooled and then pushed back into the room. It takes energy to warm/cool the air, and the less the temperature needs changed from the set point, the less energy used. It is the job of Rob and his team to determine the optimal temperature that maximizes comfort and minimizes energy usage for each room. This happens constantly throughout the day, month, and year throughout the facility which cumulates financially after a while. The beauty of a digital twin of the facility is the entire process of testing and figuring out the most optimal room temperature, is done digitally and more accurately. No need for any manual testing plus the technology figures out to a higher accuracy what exactly the right temperatures is based on historical data and future predictions.

EcoTwin

That is merely one example within an ocean of possibilities capable by a digital twin. This is where Luke’s brilliance comes to play once again. What if you developed software that creates a digital twin for almost any large-scale facility or campus? Thus, EcoTwin was born. Luke assembled a team to begin to tackle this project, including other former classmates. They began to develop the first iteration of EcoTwin. EcoTwin was developed based on providing technology for large-scale facilities and colleges to find solutions to lower operational costs due to energy usage. As well as form strategies and goals to continue to lower costs. EcoTwin provides facility management with a complete understanding of their building(s) using a visually appealing, understandable, and intuitive dashboard. With the cherry on top being a digital twin of the entire building or campus buildings.

The biggest advantage of technology such as this it is provides actionable insights. A simple monitoring tool will tell you what is going on through numbers, but often it can be hard to derive any meaningful insights. Almost like an engineer explaining a whole mechanical process to someone in marketing. The information is there, but nothing is comprehensive for the marketing employee to understand how that has any effect on them or the business. EcoTwin provides dashboards that almost any department employee can understand what the data is saying. The digital twin working in tandem with the monitoring, viable solutions can be evaluated from the data that was given.

So what…

There are already workable solutions to digital twin technologies for buildings such as what EcoTwin is setting out to accomplish. However, a market price is yet to be established, as well as a fully functional software application. EcoTwin is set to provide the first market solution that not only delivers a positive ROI but aids facilities and colleges with decreasing operational costs. Studies are already seeing an upwards of 9% reduction in energy cost savings (Source). The biggest challenge faced with this technology is adoption by large entities as this is something never done before commercially. A sort of “guinea pig” is needed that is willing to take the risk early on to help develop the technology and be a first mover for the industry.

As the world moves toward sustainability and achieving a circular economy, technologies such as EcoTwin will be vital to progress. It is a double whammy, that facilities and colleges can lower energy usage, as well as take steps to sustainable practices. Campus Heartbeat was built on the context of sustainability and EcoTwin looks to continue that. While that is not the main reason for EcoTwin, it surely provides a nice topping to saving capital expenditures. This very reason is what led me to join this amazing team recently. The possibilities of these technologies are what change the world, hopefully for the better, and create an everlasting planet with its inhabitants.