+21% margin at Malpensa: when the Plant Manager uses a digital twin.

A Virtual Digital Operator that optimises the day-to-day running of Malpensa Airport’s tri-generation plant.

Markets

Energy

Solutions

OptiEPTM

The challenge

The tri-generation plant powering Malpensa Airport is a particularly complex asset: two combined cycles, auxiliary boilers, thermal storage, nine absorption chillers and two electric chillers, all integrated into a dedicated network supplying electricity, hot water and chilled water.

The Plant Manager has to balance highly dynamic load profiles, volatile energy prices, environmental and regulatory constraints, and limited availability of certain assets.

The question is simple but crucial: how can digital solutions optimise day-to-day operations and support decision-making in a technological, political and market landscape that never stops changing?

How we create value

Optit designed a three-phase journey, completed in just four months: pilot project, solution development and go-live.

During the pilot, we built a Digital Twin of the plant and simulated 8,760 hours of operation, comparing the results against actual dispatch and identifying the levers of value.

The solution we implemented is our Decision Support System (DSS), OptiEPTM: a Virtual Digital Operator that combines:

forecasting models (ML/DL) for energy loads;
a MILP model for optimal short-term dispatch;
a long-term strategic model;
a visualisation web app;
an automatic scheduler integrated with the customer’s SCADA and Historian systems.

An end-to-end platform at the Plant Manager’s service.