Unlocking The Future: IES And Soben’s Partnership Delivers Cost Insights For Digital Twins

Unlocking The Future: IES And Soben’s Partnership Delivers Cost Insights For Digital Twins

Hot off the press from London Climate Week, built environment software provider Integrated Environment Solutions (IES) and Soben, a global construction consultancy, have announced a collaboration to integrate engineering costing data with IES’s existing digital twin offering. This additional insight from Soben elevates IES’s solution; the updated software will provide property owners and managers with clear decarbonization strategies for assets, whilst optimizing asset profitability and ensuring all interventions offer positive returns. Demonstrating tangible return on investment has been a hinderance to digital twin adoption; this new partnership will remove this barrier by showcasing profitable solutions.

Digital twins are best described as virtual representations of real-world buildings. The twin replicates a facility’s properties, systems and processes, simulating its performance using real-time and historical data from sources such as sensors, equipment and plans. Verdantix has previously provided extensive coverage of built environment digital twins (see Verdantix: High Value Use Cases For Smart Building Digital Twins).

The potential for facilities improvement using digital twins is evident; property owners and managers are continuously looking to optimize existing operations and drive energy efficiency to avoid high utility bills. CBRE research shows that 65% of property occupiers have announced net zero pledges. With many firms not able to move to new, high-specification net-zero offices, digital twins offer the chance to improve current facilities through retrofit and targeted energy management, alongside asset and maintenance management.

IES initially launched their digital twin product ICL (Intelligent Communities Lifecycle) in 2019 and the offering has continued to improve over the years. The solution goes further than previous energy modelling software – such as BIM, which is limited to a building itself – by modelling energy interactions in real time with local renewable and district energy schemes, and across multiple buildings. ICL facilitates modelling entire campuses and identifying energy reduction interventions throughout (see Verdantix: The Reality Of Digital Twins For Buildings). The software employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to calibrate models to real-life energy meter data and improve simulation accuracy.

Founded in 2011, Soben has quickly gained a global presence and has costing data for all levels of engineering energy retrofit; from upgrading central plant equipment to replacing façade elements. Combining these firms’ data will allow users not only to set out a path to net zero, but also to demonstrate return on investment for retrofit interventions and the digital twin purchase itself in an accurate manner.

With this partnership allowing for new insights into facilities optimization, it is certainly an exciting time for the digital twin market. Competitor offerings from vendors such as Cohesion, Johnson Controls and Schneider Electric will no doubt be reacting accordingly.

For further insight on digital twins for the built environment, see It’s A Tall Order: Digital Twins Deliver Modernity To Out-Of-Date Buildings and Upping The Digital Twin Dosage For Smart Hospitals.