How much to build a Digital Twin?

Key points

A Digital Twin for a Grade A Commercial Office building of around 600,000 ft² (60,000 m²) would cost $1.2m and $1.7m. Whereas, for a more complex and larger General Hospital building of around 2,100,000 ft² (200,000m²) would cost $3m and $4.2m.
Below we provide estimates of costs for a Grade A Commercial Office, a High School, Secondary School, or Training Center, a University Campus, a General Hospital, a Distribution Center, a High-tech Factory or Laboratory, and a Shopping Mall.
With uncertainty in real data available we have researched and worked up some theoretical cost models to provide an order of cost, on a per ft² and m² basis, based on notional building types. These estimates include client team costs.
The global market for the Digital Twin market is expected to grow from a predicted UD$3.6billion to around US$50billion by 2026.

Implementing a Digital Twin

A Digital Twin for buildings or infrastructure is a digital representation of the physical asset. This will usually be an expanded use of the BIM (Building Information Model) and GIS (Geographic Information System) with added data and methods for information management.

You can find a detailed explanation of Digital Twins and an 8-step methodology to help specify a Digital Twin system for Buildings and Infrastructure here.

We are in the early days of the Digital Twin becoming a regular feature of Asset Management and, as you will learn from the other article, putting a useful Digital Twin in place requires a significant linkage in our thinking between the design and construction stage and the operational procedures that we adopt as Asset Managers.

Consulting Engineers must now meet the challenge of bridging the gap between construction and operations and this requires close collaboration with the client organization and a good effort to align the operations function with the technology and information management within the Digital Twin.

Digital Twin Case Study Data

For the Built Environment, there are limited cases of Digital Twin implementation and those that are in place are mostly:

Experimental
Dependent upon new technology development so include disproportional R&D costs
Have variable function and scope so are hard to compare

The known cases, where information is publicly available, have a combination of these features.

The global market for the Digital Twin market is expected to grow from a predicted UD$3.6billion to around US$50billion by 2026. Some of this growth will have a direct impact on Built Environment projects and the work that Consulting Engineers will be expected to deliver.

Recognizing that demand for Digital Twin implementation will grow, for Consulting Engineers to advise clients well, there is a need for some reference cost data. With uncertainty in real data available we have researched and worked up some theoretical cost models to provide an order of cost, on a per ft² and m² basis, based on notional building types.

Cost Models for a Digital Twin

Below we provide estimates of costs for a Grade A Commercial Office, a High School, Secondary School, or Training Center, a University Campus, a General Hospital, a Distribution Center, a High-tech Factory or Laboratory, and a Shopping Mall.

Grade A Commercial Office

A typical A grade commercial office building that is 600,000 ft² (60,000 m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $1.3 and $1.8 per ft² ($14 and $19 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1.9 and $2.7 per ft² ($21 and $29 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $300k that is included.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $1.2m and $1.7m.

High School, Secondary School, Training Center

A typical high school or secondary school or a training center building that is 300,000 ft² (30,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $0.5 and $0.7 per ft² ($5 and $8 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1 and $1.3 per ft² ($10 and $15 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $150k that is included.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $290k and $410k.

University Campus

A group of typical university campus buildings that are 1,000,000 ft² (90,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $0.9 and $0.4 per ft² ($10 and $14 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1.4 and $1.9 per ft² ($15 and $21 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $300k that is included.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $1.4m and $2m.

General Hospital

A general hospital that is 2,100,000 ft² (200,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $1 and $1.5 per ft² ($11 and $16 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1.4 and $2.0 per ft² ($15 and $22 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $300k.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $3m and $4.2m.

Distribution Center

A large high-tech distribution center that is typically 300,000ft² (30,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $0.4 and $0.6 per ft² ($5 and $7 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $0.9 and $1.2 per ft² ($10 and $14 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $150k.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $300k and $400k.

High-tech Factory or Laboratory

A typical high-tech factory or laboratory building that is 300,000ft² (30,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $0.8 and $1.2 per ft²($9 and $13 per m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1.7 and $2.4 per ft² ($18.0 and $26 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $300k.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $600k and $800k.

Shopping Mall

A typical large shopping mall that is 3,000,000ft² (280,000m²). For the consultancy costs allowance should be between $1 and $1.4 per ft² ($11 and $16 m²). Overall, the budget allowed, including reasonable consultant, client and fixed costs will be between $1.3 and $1.9 per ft² ($14 and $21 per m²). There is an assumption of a fixed cost for systems integration and software of $150k.

For this type of building the budget for the Digital Twin would be between $4m and $5.6m.

Investment Payback for a Digital Twin

We have looked at a simple payback model for each of these building types, using the estimates of costs provided above and the typical cost of building maintenance, which you can find here. [link]

To make a case for the investment in a Digital Twin we need to consider the efficiency saving that the implementation will provide. You can find a discussion of maintenance approaches and their expected value here [link to maintenance savings), summarized in the diagram.

For this analysis we have assumed that a saving of 10% can be achieved in operational costs, primarily improvement in maintenance costs.

For the building types that we have considered, the payback, as you would expect, is faster for the larger facilities, such as the General Hospital at 4 years up to a High-tech Factory or Laboratory at 9 years. The average payback is 6.3 years.

The results are summarized in the chart and below.

The best case is the General Hospital at 4 years.
The High School, Secondary School, Training Center at 5 years.
The Shopping Mall at 5 years.
A University Campus at 6 years.
A Grade A Commercial Office at 7 years.
A Distribution Center at 8 years.
A High-tech Factory or Laboratory at 9 years.

Conclusion

From the cost models that have been used, based on industry research, we can get some guidance on the cost of providing a digital twin. The cost will vary depending upon the building type and size and the complexity of the buildings systems and the scale and detail (the number of data items) that is sensible for the client. We are trying to improve the clients Asset Management, so the appropriate level of detail is a particularly important factor in trying to achieve this.

Detail is provided above, but as a summary for very generalized buildings we can say that budgets will be in the range of:

Grade A Commercial Office between $1.2m and $1.7m.
High School, Secondary School, Training Center between $290k and $410k.
University Campus between $1.4m and $2m.
General Hospital between $3m and $4.2m.
Distribution Center between $300k and $400k.
High-tech Factory or Laboratory $600k and $800k.
Shopping Mall $4m and $5.6m.

Edited by Paul Lengthorn

Chartered Engineer, MBA, BEng, member of the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) and independent practicing Consulting Engineer