“Infrastructure is what makes other things possible,” said Nicholas Cumins, Chief Operating Officer at Bentley Systems, in an exclusive interview with SAP Brand Voice on Forbes. "But infrastructure projects today are so complex we need new ways to manage them. We see digital twin technology as the solution - it's the future of engineering."
The great advantage of digital twin technology is that infrastructure companies can first build digitally, to run simulations and optimizations, before building physically.
Cumins enthusiastically cites the ITER tokamak, an experimental machine designed to harness the energy of fusion, as a great example.
One of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today, scientists and engineers from thirty-five nations are collaborating to prove the feasibility of fusion, the process that powers the stars, as a commercially viable source of clean energy. Bentley’s software is used for conducting a digital rehearsal of all the steps needed to assemble the fusion reactor, which consists of one million components, weighs 23,000 tons and must be positioned with an accuracy of two millimeters.
Shifting the basics
Beyond such impressive new ways to drive sustainable development, Cumins is keen to point out that there's something more fundamental happening in the infrastructure sector: it’s more and more about data. Whereas infrastructure might evoke images of people with hard hats and orange safety vests, it is increasingly about gathering and aligning data across all the disciplines involved in a project such as geotechnical, structural and civil engineering, to name just a few.
Bentley Systems: Technology for the future ELENA DUVERNAY
Most of the mega projects that depend on Bentley Systems’ software and expertise present a herculean task which requires engaging with multiple companies and thousands of people in a matter of months.
“You need to make sure it’s all fully aligned, that everyone understands the full context, and that data is shared freely. It’s imperative that all the data generated during the design phase is leveraged during the construction phase, and continues to be leveraged during operations,” said Cumins.
Unlocking potential
Cumins estimates that in most infrastructure projects, most of the data generated by the organizations, roughly 95%, is never reused. That’s because data is usually locked in files, all in different formats, and sharing it is a cumbersome process. According to Cumins, the radical evolution in the industry is the use of digital twin technology as a way of sharing data across the various disciplines and the value chain, so it can be kept up to date.
“When creating a digital twin of the infrastructure, you want to federate data from all sorts of systems, including your enterprise resource planning system. For example, you can surface data from SAP and bring it into a digital twin, so you end up having a very easy, intuitive way to consume information and apply it to your decision-making process,” said Cumins.
Bentley Systems’ software and services have enabled several award-winning projects. Unity Place, for example, the new headquarters of Santander Bank in the U.K. is consolidating four existing buildings into one state-of-the-art facility. This effort means Unity will exceed its 2030 carbon targets and now serves as a benchmark for sustainable design of commercial new buildings. Siemens is also using Bentley’s digital twin technology in the development of an open urban district in Berlin, helping them understand overall carbon impact before actual construction begins.
Building a better world
Cumins is excited about today’s unique opportunity to build a better tomorrow. The impact is apparent in every sector. Oil and gas companies, for example, that have spent decades extracting fossil fuels from beneath the ocean floor are now building huge windfarms to harness the power of wind above the surface of the ocean.
Bentley Systems has solutions for every phase of a project of such magnitude. “You need advanced software to design offshore structures that will withstand the harsh operating conditions from wave, wind, current, and seismic loads,“ Cumins explained.
In addition to a full range of infrastructure design products, the company specializes in digital twin technology, which creates dynamic digital replicas of infrastructure assets, or even an entire city. The technology gives operators total insight into their assets and operations, no matter how vast or complex, and allows access anytime, anywhere.
At the recent climate talks at COP27 in Egypt, the company announced how its digital twin platform will increasingly empower sustainable development goals by integrating with the EC3 tool for infrastructure carbon calculation. Users will be able to calculate and report on embodied carbon, giving them the ability to measure and optimize the carbon footprint of materials and construction processes.
“This is a game-changer for infrastructure projects, unlocking decarbonization workflows before the ground is even broken,” said Cumins, pointing out that achieving many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals relies heavily on infrastructure. “If you want to provide clean water and affordable energy, you need to have the right facilities, systems, and services in place. This is how we’re helping those who design, build, and operate the world’s infrastructure achieve their sustainable development goals.”
The source for this hardhatNEWS is Forbes 
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