Technical requirements for a Digital Twin - Positive Energy Discricts

As cities strive for climate neutrality, they are keen to deploy innovative solutions to accelerate city-wide decarbonisation. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and Digital Twins are increasingly seen as important enablers of the clean urban energy transition promoted by the EU Cities Mission. PEDs integrate buildings, users, and urban systems, such as transportation, to achieve a net-positive annual energy balance. To capture these multi-sectoral connections and design actionable pathways for PED development, decision makers need advanced decision support tools that can drive evidence-informed planning and interventions. The BIPED project is developing an integrated Digital Twin PED platform to help cities in this endeavour. This article employs a descriptive method to provide an overview of the platform’s components and illustrate its application with several use cases. It concludes by outlining key technical requirements for Digital Twin PEDs.