ACCIONA uses digital twin technology to start up Al-Khobar 1 Desalination Plant – MEP MiddleEast

ACCIONA uses digital twin technology to start up Al-Khobar 1 Desalination Plant – MEP MiddleEast

An ACCIONA team in Spain has for the first time tested and commissioned a desalination plant thousands of miles away in Saudi Arabia using digital twin technology.

The digital twin – an exact digital copy of the Al-Khobar 1 Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plant – allowed a specialist team in Madrid to begin testing and commissioning at the plant remotely, with only minimal staff on site. The technology allowed the commissioning of the plant to remain on schedule in spite of the travel restrictions in force as a result of the pandemic.

The Madrid team conducted the first stage of this process from ACCIONA's Water Control Centre CECOA.

Using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence, the desalination plant's start up equipment, control system programmes, water and electrical circuits were tested and put into operation with remote supervision.

With the first stage of this process completed successfully using the digital twin, the next stages of the commissioning process are continuing as planned and will be completed shortly.

The plant, equipped with energy-efficient Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology, is a critical project in the Kingdom's Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) modernisation of the water sector.

ACCIONA is the EPC contractor for Al