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city : governance
Digital twin of heating plant a challenge for Central heating THE SYSTEM FOR INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF EXISTING THERMAL NETWORKS, USING CLOUD SOLUTIONS AND CONTROL OF OPERATIONAL DATA IN THE MINDSPHERE® COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT, WAS DEPLOYED FOR THE OPERATION OF THE HEATING PLANT IN THE TOWN OF STRAKONICE.
: Benefits of the digital twin The digital twin is a basic digitization tool that allows you to optimize existing operations (economic and environmental benefits), identify failures and threats in a timely manner (digital records and predictions) and model possible investments before actual implementation (measure twice, cut once). The deployment of a digital twin at the Strakonice heating plant has shown that the system is suitable to reduce existing heat losses by 5%, otherwise necessarily arising from the production,
treatment, and distribution of heat, which ultimately reduces overall fuel and other energy consumption in village.
: Threats to the heating industry In connection with growing uncertainties in heat supply, municipalities and owners of houses and premises will face a fundamental decision in the next 10 years on how to continue to supply their buildings with energy, or how to operatively address their possible surpluses. Most municipalities in the Czech Republic and
in neighbouring countries own a property in central heat supply systems, built up to 1990 and still more or less maintained. This means that the initial position in the decision-making of municipalities on further energy management may be influenced by already invested funds, often tied to the mandatory lifetime of already implemented plans in municipal or city energy. In the current economic and legislative environment, central heating systems, especially those working with fossil fuels, especially coal, are in a very disadvantageous position. Even without a far-reaching economic analysis, it can be said that those heat productions that do not significantly reduce the number of emissions (described, for example, by CO2) to produced and especially purposefully located (i.e., sold) megajoules of heat or megawatt of electricity will disappear within 20 years. The described demise of production and distribution networks will be gradual, but with devastating consequences for municipal or private investments already made in central heating systems.
