Hydrogen is a strategic energy source to decarbonise the UK energy market and as such will place increased technical and operational demands on the existing gas network infrastructure. The development of a digital strategy utilising 'Digital Twins' (DT) will enable National Grid to work with partners such as SGN, NGN & ESO to optimise both the existing network assets and provide improved method of evaluating future systems designs through connected data streams.
Collaboration with these partners will eliminate the risk of each company developing their own standards and protocols for DT's in isolation which would mean that they cannot communicate. Each partner has valuable information and understanding about their assets and processes which will be shared to enable the future whole energy network digital twin. Other GDN networks will also play a part in the project through stakeholder engagement sessions.
RAVMAC are a digital transformation company with over 60yrs industrial experience in manufacturing and engineering systems, they have recently lead the technical development of BSI's Digital Interoperability project funded by Innovate UK the knowledge and technical insights gained into global digital (interoperability) standards will prove invaluable in shaping the Discovery Phase of this project.
It is envisaged at least in the early evolution of the technology development there will be several DT's cooperating and exchanging information to deliver the desired customer expectations within a designated supply chain. The overall ontology will describe and agree where and what DT holds the data and where interoperability is required e.g. in the gas network, each stakeholder (licensee) may either hold their respective DT for their organisational needs or collaborate in a shared DT domain to develop new operating practices and drive innovation. This approach ensures prime authorship, expertise and accountability remains with the appropriate stakeholders and ensures only data and information that meets the functionality and adds value is exported or imported.
An integral part of a DT development is standardisation - a repository of data, processes, and change management, a 'single source of the truth' of how the physical entity should perform and behave. As the DT evolves, more DT interfaces can be realised to improve line of sight and value within the system architecture, eventually building a complete picture of the network. These insights will enable better system performance through improved information and decision making, resulting in lower operating costs, improved network interventions and lower consumer costs.
VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUDJnoPE6aA&list=PLrMOhOrmeR6ktSag0RbT7zPNVn0p1P2f6&index=29
Problem Bring Solved
Ever increasing industrial complexity, environmental challenges, new emerging economic threats, and global market instability in energy supply chains are driving increased demands on business performance, energy security, operating costs and consumer impact. The need to realise improvements in business resilience and efficiency are accelerating the need to explore and create capabilities in new digital solutions and techniques due to National Grid's growing complexity and limited operational insight.
The hydrogen strategy released by the UK government in August 2021 stated that in order to support the net zero targets of 2050, by 2030 there is an ambition to produce 5GWs of low carbon hydrogen. This ambition to provide low carbon hydrogen as a part of a suite of net zero energy sources provides clear guidance to the UK gas networks to progress our hydrogen transportation capability. The national transmission system (NTS) provides a supply of gas to 40 power stations, large industrial users and gas distribution networks from natural gas terminals situated on the coast. The NTS provides a resilient supply of natural gas today and aims to provide the same capability for hydrogen, especially in light of the variability in green hydrogen production.
In turn this variability in hydrogen production and the likelihood of gas blend variation in the transportation assets provides a large challenge in terms of complexity of the system and management. Real time monitoring will be required and we need to begin to understand how digital technologies can assist us, enabling deeper understanding of the combined energy networks and in turn enabling an efficient net zero energy solution. Networks are deploying digital systems through RIIO-2 that we must ensure can work together.
The Made Smarter Review conducted in 2017 cited three key enablers in digital transition to succeed, Leadership - more ambitious, informed, and focused leadership, Adoption - more widespread adoption of IDTs (Industrial Digital Technologies) across supply chains, and Innovation - faster innovation and creation of new IDTs. Whilst the energy sector is not specifically cited in the original recommendation of the MS Review, the fact remains that the energy sector is embarking on significant green energy transition through hydrogen to meet global climate impacts and is therefore well placed to collectively exploit and benefit from the use of digital capabilities to further mitigate environmental impact through improving operational efficiency through better democratised methods of real time data acquisition, aggregation, analytics and energy system modelling.
Impacts and benefits
Further development of this project is needed to support the successful implementation of digital twins project proposed throughout the energy sector. The modeling concept, along with an energy digital ontology governed through standards will provide a long-term solution that will yield several benefits when introducing changes that will inevitably occur.
Given interoperability is a vital component demonstrated throughout this project and is referenced in the majority of adjacent project conversations and publications a cohesive plan must be formed to deliver the required strategy and governance irrespective of the lead projects as its critical to the successful outcomes of future digital projects.
The project is required to develop interoperability from the basis of use cases and user journeys with the aspiration in future project activities to validate the design and data sharing approach which is a core output from the research and case studies.
The project has identified and documented the challenges associated with digital twin
interoperability, with the key uses cases of the gas industry having been captured and
documented. Through the literature, we have identified best practices for digital twin
interoperability and identified technical approaches for future work.
Due to the restricted duration of the Discovery Phase, we have been unable to quantify benefits beyond the decision matrices, Quantitative assessment will be developed in line with ongoing activities prior to further work commencing. One of our key use cases is Emergency
Response has a direct customer impact and a target Use case to prove-out project assumptions and recommendations.
Hydrogen transition increases complexity, complexity will drive costs into network operations
unless it is effectively managed. Digital twins are a mechanism for effectively managing
complexity resulting in cost savings for UK economy through National Grid streamlining
operations whilst accommodating increased complexity.
The more effectively complexity due to hydrogen can be managed through operations the more likely net zero carbon targets will be achieved through:
• Data sharing across the gas / electric industry most efficient use of generated energy
resulting in environmental benefits
• Use case analysis identified structural changes to the gas market, with the potential
development of local distribution zones with their own sources of hydrogen. (Local
injection points, green, blue hydrogen etc.). this evolution of the network can be used to
improve resilience / security due to having more production sources of H2.
Using digital twin interoperability to Improve efficiency in the overall network operation,
reducing running costs, resulting in reduced prices for consumers
