DTWO: Federated Digital Twins for Wind-Offshore

At a glance

• The planning and operation of offshore wind farms entail numerous risks for planners, investors, and operators. Digital twins, which can be used to simulate wind farm operation, are complex and often require the sharing of sensitive commercial data.
• In the DTWO project, the partners are developing a customizable platform for the creation of bespoke digital twins that reduces uncertainties by integrating large quantities of data and existing simulation models and does not require the sharing of data.
• Fraunhofer IWES is contributing its extensive expertise to many areas of the project, including findings and simulation models from earlier research projects such as WiSA big data and X-Wakes, plus it is also responsible for the further development and validation of existing models.

The challenge

The planning and operation of offshore wind farms is fraught with great uncertainties: the ground conditions, wind conditions, influences from neighboring wind farms, and, last but not least, technical availability of the wind turbines must all be taken into consideration in order to develop an economically viable project in the end.

Digital twins, which simulate offshore wind farms on the basis of both real and synthetic data, thereby reducing uncertainties, are not a viable option for all operators due to the large quantities of data required and associated data processing. In addition, existing commercial models require the sharing of sensitive data.

The solution

This is where the EU’s Horizon Europe project DTWO comes in. The project partners are developing a digital twin for offshore wind farms which can be customized to individual projects without the users’ needing to share sensitive data. This involves the integration of already available real data and simulation models in order to improve and validate the underlying models via the feedback loops between virtual and real systems. In this way, DTWO will develop a software architecture integrating five different factors influencing bottom-fixed and floating wind turbines at heights of up to 200 meters: soil conditions; sea conditions; site conditions; turbine health and reliability predictions; and grid interconnectivities and energy systems.

Among other things, Fraunhofer IWES will be contributing key research findings from the WiSA big data and X-Wakes projects to the DTWO project. In addition, the institute will also be responsible for the further development and validation of existing simulation models. 

The added value

DTWO will provide stakeholders in the offshore wind industry with a customizable platform for the creation of bespoke digital twins based on validated models and data sets. It will offer optimized decision support for complex investments in offshore wind energy by reducing uncertainties, thus enabling operators to predict and manage scenarios such as extreme weather events more effectively. In this way, DTWO will provide an important building block for a reliable, CO₂-free energy supply system.