TwinEU

The current international situation makes the process of energy transition more critical for Europe than ever before. It is a key requirement to increase the penetration of renewables while aiming at making the infrastructure more resilient and cost-effective. In this context, digital twins (DT) build a key asset to facilitate all aspects of business and operational coordination for system operators and market parties. It is of fundamental importance to start now a process of agreement at European level so not to develop isolated instances but a federated ecosystem of DT solutions. Each operator should be able to make its own implementation decisions while preserving and supporting interoperability and exchange with the remaining ecosystem. Exactly this is the vision of the TwinEU consortium: enabling new technologies to foster an advanced concept of DT while determining the conditions for interoperability, data and model exchanges through standard interfaces and open APIs to external actors. The envisioned DT will build the kernel of European data exchange supported by interfaces to the Energy Data Space under development. Advanced modeling supported by AI tools and able to exploit High Performance Computing infrastructure will deliver an unprecedented capability to observe, test and activate a pan-European digital replication of the European energy infrastructure.

In this process, reaching consensus is crucial: the consortium therefore gathers an unprecedented number of actors committed to achieving this common goal. The concepts developed by TwinEU span over 15 different European countries with a continuous coverage of the continental map. Demos will encompass key players at every level from transmission to distribution and market operators, while also testing the coordinated cross-area data exchange. The consortium also includes relevant industry players, research institutions and associations with a clear record in developing innovative solutions for Europe.

As Germany plans to install an additional capacity of 210 GW of renewable energy by 2030 and 93% of these units will be connected to the distribution grid, the interface between transmission system operator (TSO) and distribution system operator (DSO) becomes more important to guarantee a secure and reliable power system. Hence, the German demonstrator aims to develop an interoperable TSO-DSO data exchange concentrating on key extensions towards grid monitoring, grid planning and an end-2end flexibility management with focus on congestion management.

The Institute for Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency and Energy Economics at the TU Dortmund University is primarily concerned with the conceptual support of the development of the digital twin within the German demonstrator.

Project duration: 01/2024 – 12/2026

Project Website: https://twineu.net/

The consortium is led by the German applied research organization Fraunhofer and it includes Transmission System Operators (like Amprion), Distribution System Operators (like Westnetz), energy market industry players, and research institutes. A total of 77 partners, from 15 European countries collaborate within the project.