Having declared “a climate emergency” in 2019, Warrington Borough Council announced plans to work alongside charity Pure Leapfrog and Rewire-backed climate technology firm IES to work on a variety of initiatives to “shape and guide its journey towards net-zero carbon emissions” - the state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere.
A key element of this strategy included the creation of a digital twin model made up of 29 separate areas and was created using data from various sources including the council itself, the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) database, and local distribution network operators. A digital twin is a virtual model designed to accurately reflect an area, with the Warrington model replicating an area of 70 square miles in the northwest of England including the Halliwell Jones Stadium, home to Warrington Wolves Rugby League Club.
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The 29 models spanning the town were then collated into one single digital twin hosted on IES Intelligent Community Information Model (iCIM) platform, which connects each of its digital twin simulation tools. The various data streams fed into the development of the digital twin and included details such as geolocated building geometry, building use and age, building characteristics and electric network infrastructures.
Using EPC data to gather information on 50,000 residential properties within the borough, including build characteristics. These models were then used to create a holistic view of the area integrating electricity, heating, cooling, waste heat networks and shared energy links across buildings.
According to councillor Janet Henshaw “using the model to full effect will allow the council to see various possible optimisation scenarios and understand the potential return on investment for associated decarbonisation initiatives.”
Based on the digital twin simulation of two neighbourhoods within the borough, it was demonstrated that once all interventions were applied, an annual saving of 2,000-2,500 tonnes of CO2 would be possible. This would result in both these neighbourhoods becoming net zero with only a very small amount of carbon offsetting required.
Fergus Ross, ICL project manager at IES, said: “Working with Warrington Borough Council on the Rewire North West project has shown how we can quantify energy-saving measures and support local councils in seeking to secure investment in decarbonisation initiatives. These models are easily replicable to any UK city and hold a huge amount of potential in bolstering the country’s progression towards net-zero, so we really hope to see more councils implementing this kind of technology.”
