A proven path to maximizing trust, confidence and returns on your digital investments

Digitalization not only helps improve efficiency and sustainability, but also opens new opportunities in the energy market. While significant investments have been made in digitalizing the energy sector, digital twins represent an opportunity for organizations to make significant returns and outpace their competition. Currently, most organizations use digital twins as complementary tools for less critical decisions and are therefore not maximizing their value.

How can we move towards a reality where digital twins are trusted as the main source of information for critical decisions, and ultimately used in an automated way?

This reality requires organizations to build trust in their digital assets.

DNV works with global energy companies, leading platform providers and agile technology vendors to increase the quality and robustness of both transformation processes and digital twin solutions. Throughout the work we have undertaken we have observed that:

• Digital twins are mainly used as complementary sources of information.

It is very hard to get value from advanced solutions without a solid foundation.

• Artificial intelligence has significant potential but is currently not yet widely used. There is a growing awareness of the importance of data quality. Digital twins need to be integrated in work processes to be sustainable.

• A common digital architecture is emerging. There are significant investments in new information models addressing the entire life cycle. Most organizations show an increased awareness of cyber security threats.

We also believe that the introduction of the EU AI Act, with its broad definition of artificial intelligence, combined with initiatives from national authorities, will result in increased regulatory complexity.

How can organizations navigate these complexities while also getting more value from their digital investments?

Our experience shows that more advanced use of digital twins – with broad coverage and built on top of a strong foundation, will results in more efficient and less labour-intensive processes. This approach releases staff to focus on more critical operational improvements, which ultimately maximizes output.

Another way to get more value from a digital twin is to break it down into capabilities and areas of application and use that to define how to build trust.

• Capabilities vary from descriptive models – which typically could be dashboards and 3D-models, via predictive models where the solution predicts future states like remaining life, time to next repair etc., – to full automation where the digital twin triggers an action without human intervention.

Areas of application defines how broadly the solution is used – from digital twins on equipment level, via complete installations or facilities, to solutions covering an entire enterprise.

Building trust within your organization

With increasing complexity comes a requirement to build trust. If you cannot trust your digital asset, you cannot use it in the real world. Without trust at all levels, a company’s digital transformation may encounter internal roadblocks and not realize its full potential. Relationships with important stakeholders may be challenged or even broken down if you don´t succeed in building trust. Trustworthy digital twins can significantly increase efficiency and safety in the project execution phase and the operational phase. A systematic way of addressing and assessing quality will increase trustworthiness of digital twins. By following a proven methodology addressing the entire value chain, trust can be built in a consistent and efficient way thereby contributing to increased return on digital twin investments.

DNV has prepared a set of best practices – our recipes for success – based on our significant track record in securing physical assets and our knowledge of digital technologies and processes.

These are what we call recommended practices. By following a proven and well-documented methodology, trust can be built in an efficient manner with a consistent risk level, rather than using case-by-case or ad-hoc approaches. DNV’s recommended practices for assurance of digital solutions cover the entire value chain, from where data is generated, to how it is analysed and used for decisions.

With thoughtful planning, the right strategy and a robust assurance process, you can save significant time and money. Before embarking on a digital twin journey, we recommend asking the following five key questions to maximise your returns:

Am I confident in specifying the scope of the digital twin’s functionality?

• Will my digital twin work correctly and evolve alongside my physical asset over time? Is my digital infrastructure right and safe for digital twin planning and operation?

• Is my organization ready for digital twins and able to evolve alongside them?

• Am I prepared for upcoming regulatory changes and updated international standards?

Supporting your digital twin journey

Building on our best practices, DNV can support you in your digital twin journey, covering inception, operation and evolution. By combining two decades of experience in qualifying thousands of pieces of hardware with in-depth data science expertise, we help you scope, build and maintain your digital twins.