The ESO proposes to lead an industry-wide initiative to develop a digital twin of the entire GB energy system -- the VirtualES. This will be an enduring programme over a number of years, consisting of three interacting workstreams:

• Workstream 1 -- Stakeholder Engagement
• Workstream 2 -- Common Framework
• Workstream 3 -- Use Cases

This Discovery phase project supports the common framework workstream and will be used to understand what standards should be set out with participants to facilitate collaboration and compatibility. The common framework will provide a 'blueprint' so multiple parties can develop a wide range of digital twins which are interoperable and can interact using open data.

This project will explore with our partners key areas such as, but not limited to, cyber security, data quality, metadata, data ownership/storage, common attributes of digital twins, interoperability, technology, legal and regulatory issues, risks and potential use cases. We seek to understand the most challenging and high-risk elements so that these can be explored first in the 'alpha' phase, and then solutions refined further in the 'beta' stage, including testing use cases.

We envisage that VirtualES users will include network companies (Transmission Owners, Distribution Network Owners/Distribution System Operators, Gas Distribution Networks); generation asset owners and operators (wind farms, solar parks, thermal generators, batteries, interconnectors); retail companies; traders; aggregators and ultimately GB consumers. The VirtualES will provide these users with access to data and integrated modelling capabilities, to improve data-driven decision making for investments and operations. The VirtualES should also prove useful to government departments, regulators, academics and think tanks to inform whole-system strategies, policies and regulatory decisions for the net zero transition.

The ESO will lead the project but since the VirtualES is whole-system, we have engaged project partners who bring the perspectives of electricity network asset owners (NGET, SPEN, SSEN Transmission, SSEN Distribution, WPD) and gas network participants (NGGT, NGN). To deliver the project we have also partnered with a technical consortium (Arup, Energy Systems Catapult, Icebreaker One) who bring considerable expertise in digital twins, systems-thinking and energy data.

The proposed project aligns strongly with the spirit of the SIF Innovation Challenges issued for 2021. The VirtualES, underpinned by a common framework, supports an integrated whole energy system transition and explores the role of the energy sector within the wider economy.

Problem Bring Solved

National Grid ESO (ESO) is committed to driving the digitalisation of the GB energy system as innovation will play a crucial role in accelerating the net zero transition. This project addresses two key interrelated problems: that the energy landscape is becoming increasingly complex and interconnected, but that currently digital models are disconnected from one another and that data is often siloed.

Presently, there are numerous individual models of different parts of the energy sector -- using disparate data sources and largely running in isolation, leading to duplicated effort, inconsistent assumptions, and missed opportunities.

 The GB energy landscape is becoming increasingly complex as we move toward achieving net zero. The energy system will need to have greater flexibility than today, and greater levels of integration; not only within the energy sector but also extending to other sectors (e.g. heat, transport).

This project aims to seize the opportunity for developing an integrated digital representation of the GB energy sector -- a 'Virtual Energy System'. This will be delivered by defining an underpinning common framework and identifying use cases through stakeholder collaboration. The vision is that multiple digital twins, developed by a wide range of participants, will join together for specific use cases to share data, analysis and learnings. In this way, individual models capturing the expertise of a participant in their own domain will form small parts of a much bigger whole.

The models will share data and interact with one another to better simulate scenarios and inform real-world decisions -- from investment timescales to realtime operations, leading to a more robust, resilient and efficient net zero energy system. Models of the energy sector will be integrated with digital models of other sectors of the economy -- so that wider impacts and implications can be understood, mitigated and optimised. This will serve the whole energy sector and beyond, resulting in benefits for GB consumers.

The ESO believes a Virtual replica of the energy system will accelerate innovation. It will provide third parties with (selective) access to the energy system representation, allowing for more ideas and solutions to be developed by the wider ecosystem.

The first step in making this vision a reality is to develop a common framework which enables all the models to interact with one another. This is the focus of this Discovery phase SIF application -- but we hope this will only be the start of the journey.