Ontological approach to the creation of digital twins of energy objects and systems

The article discusses prerequisites for the application of the ontological approach to the construction of digital twins, taking into account the available results in the field of ontological engineering of energy systems. It is proposed to use the accumulated experience in developing mathematical models of energy objects and systems of different levels, as well as experience in building ontologies of tasks and methods, ontological models for describing and accumulating expert knowledge for building and integrating mathematical, imitation and ontological models as the basis for digital twins. Basic concepts in the field of digital twins are introduced, the main types of digital twins and their difference from “digital shadows” are considered. The stages of the transition to digital twins are proposed, the most important of which is the ontological engineering of the subject area, which ends with the construction of the corresponding ontological models. Examples of heuristic ontologies are given as a result of ontological engineering of the subject area related to heat power engineering. An example of a logical ontology in XML for a thermal power plant is given. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the fact that when creating digital twins, the structuring of the knowledge of the subject area is preliminarily performed using ontological models, on the basis of which the information and mathematical models are then built constituting the basis of digital twins and software systems driven by ontologies are developed.