Glasgow-based climate tech firm, IES, has announced an international partnership with global intelligent power management giant, Eaton.

IES will work with the company on a joint offering to develop new approaches to identify energy savings and emissions reductions for building owners around the world to meet sustainability objectives.

Utilising its world-leading digital twin technology, IES will enable Eaton’s customers to explore ways to make their buildings energy efficient and assess scope for EV charging infrastructure, energy storage and renewable generation technologies to help with the energy transition.

A digital twin is a live virtual replica of a physical building or community that behaves as its real-world counterparts would. By integrating physics-based simulation, IES can analyse the cost, benefits and impact of various efficiency measures, identifying those that will be most effective at improving a building’s energy efficiency and de-risking investments.

Coupled with Eaton’s expertise in power management, the offering will provide building owners with data-backed high-performance strategies to decarbonise buildings, improve energy efficiency and drive down energy costs.

The partnership is the latest in a series of collaborations as IES continues on its mission to drive energy efficiency in the built environment. The firm’s IESVE software is being used by the Mace Group on all of its public sector projects and its digital twin technology has supported Irish Life with it’s net-zero ambitions, having recently created four performance digital twins of commercial buildings within their portfolio 

Commenting on the partnership, Don McLean, founder and CEO of IES, said: “This is a momentous partnership for IES. Working with a business the size of Eaton, with customers in over 170 countries, will allow us to reach far more building owners in need of data-driven, tangible roadmaps to meet net zero and navigate the energy transition. 

“Digital twins will be at the centre of our work with Eaton and arm customers with the knowledge, building usage data and model that they need to make informed building decisions. There’s a lot more to come from this partnership, with further opportunities in the pipeline and an exciting future ahead.”

Delphine Clement, commercial and industrial buildings segment leader at Eaton in EMEA, said: “IES’s expertise will enable us to offer even more to our customers, demonstrating how their buildings will perform before and during their energy transition journey.

“Utilising the digital twin technology, it will be possible to forecast the energy savings and payback periods of various applications of our Buildings as a Grid approach. This aims to transform buildings into energy hubs that support EV charging and renewable energy generation to save on energy bills and ensure properties comply with net-zero regulations.”