Use Digital Twins to Contextualize Data

17 min

Refer to the following how-to guide for leveraging Digital Twins for energy monitoring.

User Scenario

Digital Twins will model the asset as an energy monitoring machine located at several plant sites. The instances for the model will be the specific energy monitoring machines at each site.

The power generated will be used to generate values for cost, energy used, and energy rate. The timestamp value will be used to generate values for the attributes of season, start hour, and energy-rate description.

Values for power generated will be sent through the topic devicehub.alias.P2_Electrical_Panel.L3_Machine2.

Timestamp values from one of the energy monitoring machines will be sent through the topic flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2.

Sample Output Payload from Instance

This user scenario will be based on the following sample output payload from one instance.

{
  "time": "2023-04-13T17:00:00.000Z",
  "plant": "Toronto",
  "line": "Line 1",
  "asset": "Machine 2",
  "shift": 2,
  "energyUsed": 2.51,
  "energyRate": 15.1,
  "energyRateDescription": "On-Peak",
  "season": "Winter",
  "cost": 37.9,
  "timestamp": 1681408544466,
  "startHour": "2023-04-13T17:00:00.000Z"
}

Step 1: Create Digital Twins Model

You will first need to create the model that will store the instances of energy monitoring machines.

To create the model:

Navigate to Digital Twins. The Models pane appears.
From the Models pane, click the Create a model tile. The Create a Model dialog box appears.
Click the Type drop-down list and select ASSET.
Enter the name of the model in the Name field (for example, Energy_Monitoring_Model).
(Optional) Enter a short description of the model in the Description field.
Click Add. The new model appears in the Models pane.

After creating the model, you can configure it with the following parameters.

Model Static Attributes

The static attributes will need to be customized for each instance.

Asset
Line
Model
Manufacturer
Location
Plant

Transformations

The transformations are based on the sample payload above.

energyRateDescription

{
  "value": "$energyRateDescription",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

energyRate

{
  "value": "$energyRate",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

energyUsed

{
  "value": "$energyUsed",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

shift

{
  "value": "$shift",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

startHour

{
  "value": "$startHour",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

season

{
  "value": "$season",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

cost

{
  "value": "$cost",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp"
}

The list of transformations would display as the following.

List of transformations

Model Dynamic Attributes

The dynamic attributes will use the appropriate schemaID (transformation) to generate values.

Name	Unit (optional)	SchemaID (optional)
cost	USD	cost
energyRateDescription		energyRateDescription
energyRate	USD/kWh	energyRate
energyUsed		energyUsed
shift		shift
startHour		startHour
season		season
power	kW

Hierarchy

The output for the model will be based on the hierarchy, which would categorize the dynamic and static attributes into telemetry or properties. It would look like the following.

Step 2: Create Instances

Once the model is configured, you will need to Configure parameters for each energy monitoring device at each site.

One of the instances is described below based on the topics for the data in the user scenario description.

Instance Static Attributes

You will customize the model static attributes to the specific instance.

Attribute Name	Attribute Value
Asset	Machine 2
Line	Line 1
Model	model_112233
Manufacturer	Siemens
Location	Canada
Plant	Toronto

Instance Dynamic Attributes

You will configure the appropriate topics in the user scenario description to the dynamic attributes configured in the model.

Name	Unit	Topic	SchemaID (optional)
power	kW	devicehub.alias.P2_Electrical_Panel.L3_Machine2
cost	USD	flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	cost
energyRateDescription		flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	energyRateDescription
energyRate	USD/kWh	flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	energyRate
energyUsed		flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	energyUsed
shift		flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	shift
startHour		flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	startHour
season		flowToDT.EMD_L3_Machine2	season