Opinion piece: Digital twins and the grid that no longer stands still

Historically, grid reliability focused on maintaining stable operations under expected conditions. Today, however, electricity grids are being pushed beyond their operational limits whilst contending with ageing infrastructure, accelerating electrification, distributed energy resources (DERs).  It has become quite the volatility melting pot.

Fortunately, like a planetary superhero of sorts, digital twin technology is now donning the proverbial cape, enabling utilities to understand the present state of the grid, evaluate future scenarios, and make better decisions before acting in the live network.

Digital twins combine operational data, engineering models, asset information, simulation, and analytics in one beautifully engineered virtual environment, ready to the picking.

In practice, a digital twin is a living, continuously updated virtual model of the grid. It integrates data from a mind-blowing number of sources like SCADA, sensors, IoT devices, GIS (Geographic Information System), asset systems, engineering models, outage history, and operational rules.

Why this is so important is that modern grids are no longer linear.  With the advent of distributed energy resources (DERs) and so forth, the grid is now faced with bidirectional power flows, intermittency, local constraints, and new protection challenges.

It is highly complex and static models with disconnected sources are not up for the task. Digital twins instead provide utilities with a continuously updated, dynamic view of the grid which offer:

• Real-time situational awareness across the network.
• Scenario simulation for operational and planning decisions.
• Predictive insights into asset health and system behaviour.
• Risk-free testing of network changes before implementation.

Dealing with DERs, the right way

As mentioned,  DERs are reshaping load profiles and power flows which in turn sees grid operators facing challenges that go far beyond simple visibility.

For one, operators need to understand the constraints that come with a static network. A feeder – that once delivered power in one direction – may now receive solar exports during the day and face clustered electric vehicle charging demand in the evening.

In this environment, operators need a system-level understanding of voltage, thermal limits, protection settings, hosting capacity, asset condition, weather exposure, and customer demand.

Digital twins help by modelling DER behaviour under different operating conditions, assessing hosting capacity, testing control strategies, and comparing reinforcement options with flexibility-based alternatives before decisions are made in the live network

Tangible, daily benefits

Digital twins’ benefits don’t stop at DERs.  In a time when utilities face a constant uphill battle to maintain equipment, digital twin environments offer important benefits such as:

• Exposing vulnerabilities before failure; simulation and predictive analytics highlight weak points in the grid before they trigger outages.
• Modelling scenarios in advance: switching, load transfers, fault isolation, and restoration strategies can be tested virtually, not in crisis.
• Accelerating response, which enable operators to act faster and with greater assurance, reducing outage duration and improving restoration sequencing.
• Preventing secondary failures – proactive modelling lowers the risk of cascading issues from incorrect or overloaded configurations.
• Enabling condition‑based maintenance, decisions shift from age‑based replacement to risk‑based prioritisation.

While digital twins are powerful, their effectiveness depends on the integration of physical infrastructure, operational control, trusted data, and enterprise intelligence. This is where the combined Schneider Electric and AVEVA proposition becomes especially relevant.

Schneider Electric brings the operational grid backbone: automation, protection and control, energy management, ADMS (Advanced Distribution Management System), DERMS (Distributed Energy Resource Management System), connected field devices, and the domain expertise required to operate critical electrical infrastructure.

AVEVA contributes the industrial intelligence layer which include data infrastructure, unified engineering and operations information, contextualised asset data, analytics, and digital twin capabilities.

Ultimately, digital twins represent an all-important leap from static assumption to dynamic, living systems, allowing utilities the ability to see, simulate, predict, and optimise their decision making.