DμDT: the Deakin University Microgrid Digital Twin

In 2021, the largest solar farm and renewable energy microgrid to date at an Australian university commenced operation. Located at the Waurn Ponds campus of Deakin University, the microgrid will be a key enabler for the University to achieve its carbon neutrality and 100% renewable electricity targets by 2025. The 14-hectare solar farm is capable of producing up to 7.25MW power which translates to 54% of the electricity demand of the campus. To enable real time system monitoring, data analysis, power output prediction, and simulation of the microgrid for answering what-if questions, a digital twin was developed in-house. In this paper, we present the Deakin Microgrid Digital Twin
$(\mathbf{D}\mu \mathbf{DT})$
with a focus on the health monitoring functionalities (essentially a microgrid assessment tool), including: efficiency monitoring, alarm analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven anomaly detection. The design of the digital twin is general in nature, with software, machine learning and visualisation components designed to make it possible for utility extensions beyond the Microgrid application.