FM newsroom – sustainability, construction. Under a strategic partnership between Siemens and Mercedes-Benz AG, the companies have co-created a Digital Energy Twin to improve the integration of energy efficiency and sustainability measures in factory designs and upgrades.
Designed to support the ambition to run all fully owned production sites of Mercedes-Benz worldwide on 100% renewable energies by 2039, the innovative Digital Energy Twin enhances, simplifies and speeds the early-phase factory energy planning process for both brownfield and greenfield sites – the official announcement informs.
Sustainably factory planning
Based on behavioural models of buildings, technical equipment and energy generation, the Digital Energy Twin – designed and tested in the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, Germany, at the ‘Factory 56’ – connects inputs such as weather data, load profile simulation, building asset selection and dimensioning. Simulating a physical energy system verifies proposed planning scenarios for energy usage, providing recommendations on optimising desired outcomes, including energy efficiency and associated cost savings, as well as emission reduction.
“By accurately modelling operational and energy usage scenarios, the Digital Energy Twin enables faster and more transparent decision-making in the early planning phases. This demonstrates how at Siemens we are combining the real and digital worlds to drive scalable, sustainable progress in industries, and represents an exciting first step towards an integrated process for optimised planning, building operation, and production,”- Matthias Rebellius, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Smart Infrastructure
One step closer to living smart buildings
Siemens and Mercedes-Benz established a strategic partnership in 2021, enabling cooperation to advance the digitalisation of sustainable production methods.
“The Digital Energy Twin is our answer to successfully visualise, analyse and sustainably optimise energy-efficient building processes. Through this innovative approach, we benefit from a better understanding of existing factory buildings and transform them into living smart buildings. Thanks to this transformative technology, we are maximising their potential and setting forward-looking standards for energy-efficient and sustainable building use in Mercedes-Benz’s global production network” – Arno van der Merwe, Vice President Production Planning Mercedes Benz Cars
Moving on to sustainable breweries
Digital energy twins are a vital part of Siemens’ portfolio to support industrial customers in achieving their sustainability and decarbonisation goals.
Siemens recently announced that it was working with another strong international partner for its global Net Zero Production roadmap. They plan to use a digital energy twin to simulate energy use and identify energy savings options at 15 breweries worldwide. Siemens estimates that energy savings of between 15% and 20% are achievable at each site, with an average CO₂ reduction of 50% per site.
image: siemens.com
