May 19th 2022

Climate solution leaders unite to pave the way to a decarbonised built environment

Climate solution leaders unite to pave the way to a decarbonised built environment

Climate tech innovators, IES, and energy solutions provider, SSE Energy Solutions, have joined forces to bring their respective leading-edge technology and expert knowledge to the forefront of the fight against climate change, with a series of joint activities geared towards decarbonising the built environment.

As a Digital Twin partner to SSE Energy Solutions, IES’ Digital Twin technology enables SSE to effectively model and demonstrate energy use and various engineering options to its clients before breaking ground. Using the best of building physics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, IES’ Digital Twins provide an extremely cost effective and efficient decision-making tool for decarbonising the built environment and identifying how best to meet energy demand using renewable sources.  

Together, through an effective relationship bringing together the best from both organisations, SSE and IES clients will benefit from technological advances in flexible generation and storage, district heating, vehicle charging and electrical networks, optimising generation and load using digital platforms. Combined with advanced data analytics and IES’ Digital Twin technology, SSE can give clients the opportunity to visualize, control, generate and trade energy flexibly. 

After working on real-world projects together, IES and SSE came together for COP26 last year to create an immersive exhibition of iconic Glaswegian buildings, highlighting potential net-zero solutions using IES’s proprietary Digital Twin technology.

Continuing the relationship this year to bring greater awareness of sustainability challenges in the built environment, IES is developing a cityscape Digital Twin which will integrate with SSE’s augmented reality platform to demonstrate potential energy usage and savings, data flow, grid strengths and weaknesses, energy flow, water flow and net-zero priorities. This will be exhibited by SSE and IES at the Decarbonisation Summit, held in Manchester on the 7th-8th June 2022. Organised by SSE Energy Solutions and Green TV, the summit aims to propel a vision for a decarbonised future, to inspire change, initiate action, and amplify a range of vital voices in the race to net zero. One of those voices will be IES’s ICL process manager, Dave Sweeney, who is participating in a panel discussion on ‘Maximising Renewable Technology at a Local Level’ on the second day of the summit.

Nathan Sanders, Managing Director of SSE Energy Solutions, Distributed Energy, said: "Data is key to unlocking the potential for decarbonising heat, transport and power in all large scale distributed energy and infrastructure projects. To be able to visualise carbon savings and efficiencies before we break ground and commit to new designs, ownership plans or operational agreements allows us to work with our clients on delivering a whole system that will be fit for the future. Our partnership with IES has proven extremely valuable in supporting both feasibility studies, funding and investment decisions and whole systems decarbonisation with a number of clients.

"I am very much looking forward to seeing both platforms working side by side at the Decarbonisation Summit. Our Augmented Reality Platform will be unveiled in front of our distinguished guests and representatives from the private and public sectors during panel discussions and direct engagement on how the UK can tangibly progress towards net-zero by finding local solutions to national challenges."

Don McLean, founder and CEO of IES, said: “As a company, our key priority is to look at how we can decarbonise our built environment to curb the impact of climate change and improve the lives of people across the world. Our Digital Twin software is key to this and allows us to effectively work with other organisations to achieve this faster – we all know there is no time to waste. Working with SSE Energy Solutions as a leading energy provider and sustainable property advocate is an excellent partnership in achieving this mission and we hope our continued work together will amplify these climate solutions and make a meaningful difference in the race to net-zero.”

IES also intend to further support SSE at several Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events in June and July. Set to be hosted at various university locations throughout the UK and Ireland, IES’ cityscape digital twin will also be used to demonstrate the benefits of digital twins to higher education estates.

Avi Baidya, Head of Universities & Higher Education Client Development of SSE Energy Solutions, Distributed Energy, said: “The Directors of Estates at most universities face perennial challenges to maintain the highest standards of facilities and services across campuses, whilst optimising space utilisation and delivering on their decarbonisation goals. Being able to digitally model the changes in use and application of existing spaces, whilst assessing the impact of new technology or the addition of renewable energy generation is invaluable to the strategic energy management for these organisations. 

“This partnership will enable these Estates Directors to experience the digital expertise of IES alongside the real-world practical experience of implementing decarbonised distributed energy solutions from SSE.” 

For more information please visit:
https://www.iesve.com
https://www.sseenergysolutions.co.uk/distributed-energy-infrastructure/our-solutions