How powerful is CIM technology? See how it empowers zero-carbon operation and maintenance in smart parks

Against the backdrop of the "dual carbon" goals, the construction of zero-carbon parks has become a hot topic. You may be curious about what exactly a zero-carbon park is. Simply put, it is an area where the "carbon neutrality" concept is integrated into all aspects of park planning, construction, and management, comprehensively considering factors such as buildings, energy, and transportation, making full use of renewable energy, and combining with carbon trading to achieve annual operating carbon emissions no greater than zero. The CIM technology we are discussing today is like installing a "digital brain" in a smart park, playing a key role in achieving zero-carbon operation and maintenance.

Let's talk about the necessity of building zero-carbon parks. From a national perspective, the "dual carbon" goals are a solemn commitment made by China to the world. We plan to transition from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality in 30 years, a shorter timeframe than many Western countries, meaning greater pressure on energy and economic transformation. Zero-carbon park construction is an important lever for achieving this goal. From the park's own perspective, parks are important carriers of industrial development, with 80% of industrial enterprises concentrated in parks, and industrial output value accounting for more than 50% of the national total, yet carbon emissions account for 31%. Therefore, improving park energy efficiency and promoting zero-carbon transformation is the only way for sustainable development of parks.

So what exactly is CIM technology? Its full name is City Information Modeling. Based on technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Internet of Things (IoT), it integrates multi-dimensional information model data and perceived data of the city to construct a three-dimensional digital space city information complex. Simply put, it "moves" the real-world park into the digital world, forming a digital twin, allowing managers to manage more intuitively and efficiently.

Taking the control platform of the Tairun Electric Smart Park as an example, we can clearly see the role of CIM technology in zero-carbon construction. This platform is equipped with an operation and maintenance-level BIM model, with accuracy down to individual components of the building. By connecting to the park's IoT devices, it achieves the perception, access, management, and intelligent analysis of equipment operation data. It's like a "thousand-mile eye" and "swift ear," able to map the park's operation dynamics and various subsystems in real time, achieving visualized presentation and centralized management, allowing people, events, and things to respond in real time in space, providing technical and decision-making support for zero-carbon park construction.

In the standard system of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the industrial field, the application of CIM technology mainly revolves around energy. In terms of source control, it digitally manages the development, storage, and use of photovoltaic equipment in the park; in the production process, it uses BIM and IoT technology to standardize the access and centralized monitoring and control of energy-consuming equipment; it also establishes an energy and carbon emission information management system to achieve precise monitoring, statistics, and management, regularly analyzing data and proposing improvement measures to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The control platform of Tairun Electric Smart Park has highlights in terms of advancement and uniqueness. Its operation and maintenance-level BIM model has higher precision, serving as the basis for equipment energy consumption monitoring and operation monitoring. Through model lightweighting and data compression technology, the loading and response speed of the platform has been significantly improved, with the loading time of two-dimensional related services reduced by more than 50%, three-dimensional by more than 40%, and simple statistical analysis query response time reduced by more than 60%, much faster than general city information model basic platforms, greatly improving management efficiency.

The platform also combines GIS and BIM technologies to provide an integrated three-dimensional scene. Using a three-dimensional GIS model for land planning, it meets the needs of land subdivision and electronic fences. A single map can cover the needs of all departments, realizing various data analysis, statistics, and display. This technology is like moving the real world onto the screen, giving people an immersive feeling, allowing for quick location of various points, viewing the surrounding environment, and achieving visualized management, which is particularly convenient.

The main functions of the zero-carbon park CIM platform revolve around energy management. Energy management uses IoT devices to monitor the energy consumption of the park and buildings, calculates carbon emission indexes, provides intuitive and scientific data analysis, supports viewing water and electricity consumption by building and by time, identifies major energy consumption areas, saves costs, and improves utilization rates. Equipment management integrates IoT technology to standardize the access and centralized monitoring and control of energy-consuming equipment, real-time monitoring of equipment status, statistical analysis of equipment types, operating status, and energy consumption, improving management efficiency and emergency response capabilities, and extending equipment lifespan. Smart operation and maintenance is based on the operation and maintenance-level BIM model to achieve maintenance management of energy-consuming equipment, making maintenance more efficient.

However, some challenges have been encountered in practice. In terms of standards, there are difficulties in precise measurement of carbon emissions calculation and analysis, benchmarking of low-carbon emissions between parks, quantification of carbon reduction potential, and design of paths and mechanisms. This requires government leadership and active participation from parks to jointly formulate relevant standards. Functionally, while the platform can monitor and analyze the use of water and electricity and other energy sources, it lacks post-analysis remediation measures and on-site monitoring, failing to form an energy-saving closed loop. Therefore, parks need to introduce operational teams to conduct dual-carbon operations based on energy consumption analysis data to better achieve zero-carbon goals.

In general, focusing on carbon emissions during the operation and maintenance phase of smart parks is of great significance to achieving zero-carbon parks. The rapid development of CIM technology and digital technology can focus energy consumption in carbon emissions to the building component level, using a "model as a carrier, data as a driver, and platform empowerment" approach to promote the healthy and sustainable development of smart parks. With the continuous improvement of technology, CIM technology will play an important role in the zero-carbon construction of more smart parks, bringing the zero-carbon goal closer to us.