Industrial digital twins in offshore wind farms

Abstract

Digital twin technology, aligned with Industry 4.0 standard, has witnessed widespread adoption in various industries, notably in manufacturing. Meanwhile, the concept of digital twin itself is yet to be clearly defined in wind farm sector. Our primary contribution lies in investigating the potential for transferring knowledge of industrial digital twins for the wind farm industry. Through a comprehensive literature study, we explored the digital twin concept within the context of wind farm applications. Also, we conducted a comparative analysis of digital twin frameworks employed in wind farm and manufacturing sectors. We aim to identify commonalities and differences between these frameworks and to determine how they could be adapted to the unique requirements of the offshore wind sector. A case study is presented, wherein the Industry 4.0 standard framework, Asset Administration Shell (AAS), is conceptually applied to the wind farm sector. Additionally, we briefly explored the AASX Package Explorer and concluded that implementing the AAS could be a promising option for enhancing digital twin functionality in offshore wind farms, and for achieving interoperability in line with Industry 4.0 standard.