SIEMES：xiSmart campus- Unleash low-carbon potential through digital technology

SIEMES

Summary

Climate change is a common challenge faced by human society and is increasingly threatening human survival and development. China's economy has maintained rapid growth in the past few decades and addressing climate change has become an inherent need for China's sustainable development. In 2020, the Chinese government clearly put forward the strategic goal of reaching a carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060; at the same time, China also faces a series of major practical challenges such as fossil fuel dominated energy structure and high energy consumption per unit of GDP, which make the realization of the “dual carbon” goal urgent and daunting.

In China, various industrial campuses are key elements of China's economy and the concentrated consumers of various energy sources. How to achieve low carbon and zero carbon in these campuses will become one of the core issues of China's "dual carbon" strategy.

In 2012, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the target of intelligent campus construction for the first time, marking a new stage of transformation and upgrading of China's industrial campuses from the traditional type to the intelligent type. Since then, various relevant departments and local governments have issued a series of policies and guidelines to create a good policy environment and development guidelines for the transformation of campuses towards low-carbon and digitalization.

The construction goal of zero-carbon smart campus is to systematically integrate the concept of "carbon neutral" in the planning, construction, and management of the campus, to make comprehensive use of energy saving, emission reduction, carbon sink, carbon capture and utilization, carbon trading etc. Among them, the low-carbon energy system is the core of the zero-carbon campus construction. Meanwhile, digitalization will become a key enabling tool for the intelligent management and zero-carbon transformation of the campus.

The digital solution of zero-carbon smart campus can be built by digitalizing the three main stages of the energy flow: energy supply, transmission, and consumption. The focuses should be setting up an integrated energy system at the energy supply side, realizing the automation and digitalization of the campus infrastructure at the transmission side, and making loads in campus consume less energy.

There are several best practices done by Siemens and our partners:

The University of Birmingham (UOB) and Siemens have worked together to create an integrated energy system for the campus that can adapt to changing needs and help UOB to reduce its carbon emissions in a sustainable and dynamic way, using measures such as applying digital technology, artificial intelligence, distributed renewable power production and energy storage, changing customer behavior patterns etc.

Changshu High-tech Zone MOBO Innovation Industrial Park Project. In this project, digital technology enables effective management of the people, logistics and vehicles in the campus to optimize resource allocation. The digital technology also allows operators to analyze the energy consumption of the campus. Moreover, the digital platform integrates various applications such as carbon verification, carbon footprint, carbon trading, etc. The large amount of data collected in return helps the operator to improve the energy efficiency and to gradually meet the goal of a decarbonized smart campus.

Shanghai Pudong Lianmin Village Project: Siemens provided an integrated solution from planning, consulting to the core energy management platform. The energy management platform integrates artificial intelligence and other technologies to intelligently manage multiple sources such as PV, wind power, geothermal, energy storage etc. With the comprehensive solution, the total energy consumption of Lianmin Village is expected to be reduced by 10% and carbon emission is expected to be reduced by 50%.

China has formulated and issued many policy documents and supporting incentives to promote the construction of zero-carbon campuses, however, most campuses around the country are still on the road of transformation from traditional campuses to low-carbon smart campuses, and a series of developments and iterations are still needed to achieve the goal of zero-carbon smart campuses, for which we have the following suggestions.

§ Guide the top-level design of zero-carbon smart campuses and improve relevant regulations and technical roadmaps.

§ Promote the pilot operation of zero-carbon smart campuses and accelerate the implementation of projects in demonstration zones.

§ Promote distributed energy technology innovation and development, build a new energy system with renewable energy as its core.

§ Encourage digital technology innovation and development for zero-carbon smart campuses.

In order to achieve the long-term goal of sustainable development, from global cooperation to China's "dual carbon" policy goal, all industries may be reshaped by "carbon neutrality". As the hosting space for many industries, the campus will play an important role in balancing economic development and decarbonization. Integrating relevant policies and market needs with the main business will be a compulsory course for most campuses and companies in the future. With digital innovation and cross-sectoral industry insight, Siemens will work together with partners in China to create a green ecology, enabling the creation of an end-to-end low-carbon industry chain and helps empowering China to achieve its "dual carbon" goal.

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SIEMES：xiSmart campus- Unleash low-carbon potential through digital technology