Introduction to Digital Twins for the Smart Grid

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to the foundations of digital twins and makes the case for employing them in smart grids. As engineered systems become more complex and autonomous, digital twin technology gains importance as the unified technological platform for design, testing, operation, and maintenance. Smart grids are prime examples of such complex systems, in which unique design and operation challenges arise from the combination of physical and software components. As high-fidelity in-silico replicas of physical components, digital twins provide safe and cost-efficient experimentation facilities in the design and verification phase of smart grids. In the operation phase of smart grids, digital twins enable automated load balancing of grids through real-time simulation and decision-making. These, and an array of similar benefits, position digital twins as crucial technological components in smart grids.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: A typical digital twin of a power grid
• Figure 2: Digital assets classified by the level of automation in data exchange with the physical asset, as per kritzinger2018digital
• Figure 3: Key digital twin responsibilities along the lifecycle of smart grids
• Figure 4: Functional view of the ISO 23247 digital twin reference architecture. (Reproduced from shao2021use.)
• Figure 5: Overview of the RAMI 4.0 reference model rami40