DIGITAL TWIN FRAMEWORK FOR SOLAR POWER PLANTS IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

The renewable energy sector (RES) is a fast-growing industry that provides sustainable and clean energy. The adoption and integration of such technologies positively affect the environment and boost the country's economy. The global trend for sustainability opens new opportunities to integrate sophisticated technologies and improve existing energy infrastructure. This project aims to propose a detailed Digital Twin (DT) framework indicating important implementation steps and providing insights into DT technology that improves operational efficiency, optimizes performance, and creates a user-friendly platform for real-time monitoring. This study has produced several deliverables through collaboration with the domestic company TechnoGroupService (TGS), which specializes in constructing and operating solar power plants in Kazakhstan. Deliverables include a detailed investigation of the 50MW solar power plant's operational process, infrastructure, and data transfer models. That detailed plant information helped to build a strong foundation for a comprehensive DT implementation framework that describes all the steps and procedures required to obtain a working DT platform. The framework provides a DT architecture consisting of six main phases, from plant infrastructure exploration to DT application description. The entire framework was then used to create a detailed roadmap for the implementation of DT in the context of Kazakhstan, taking into account the peculiarities of the region and adapting international standards to the realities of the country. As one part of the development phase, an online web platform has been developed. These include real-time monitoring indicating the current status of the solar plant which is further used in reactive-maintenance capabilities. The results offered have been reviewed by industry experts and capstone supervisors to ensure applicability, reliability, and actuality.