Hanwha Construction Division announced on the 26th that it will develop technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to enable buildings to predict their own power consumption and automatically control various facilities such as heating and cooling systems.

Hanwha Construction Division will participate in the national project “Development and Demonstration of a BIM-Based Digital Twin Building Energy Management Simulator,” promoted by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. A total of 11 industry–academia–research institutions, including E8, Seoul National University, and the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, will take part in this project, with total research and development costs of approximately KRW 15.3 billion.

In simple terms, this project aims to develop technology in which AI predicts in advance when a building will use large amounts of electricity and automatically controls the operation of heating and cooling systems and major facilities so that power usage does not surge all at once. The goal is to reduce unnecessary energy consumption to lower electricity bills and to detect signs of equipment abnormalities or failures in advance.

To this end, the project will utilize “digital twin” technology, which creates a virtual space inside a computer that mirrors an actual building. After implementing the building’s structure and facility information in three dimensions and linking them with real power consumption and heating and cooling operation data, the system will test in advance how best to operate the building to use energy in the most efficient way.

Hanwha Construction Division stated that, within this project, it will be responsible for verifying building operation and maintenance using digital twin technology. The company aims to predict hourly energy consumption with an accuracy of more than 95% and to reduce peak power demand during the hours of highest electricity use by more than 20%.

Ultimately, the company plans to develop “autonomous building operation technology,” under which AI analyzes building conditions and energy use patterns and independently determines the optimal operation method, without the need for manual control of facilities. The developed technology will reportedly be applied to Gyeonggi Provincial Government, KINTEX, and Seoul National University to verify its performance.

Earlier this year, Hanwha Construction Division also participated in a national project worth KRW 43.8 billion to improve energy efficiency at AI data centers. Including the new project, the total value of its national projects related to energy efficiency amounts to KRW 59.1 billion. In effect, the company is expanding the application scope of AI-based energy management technology from data centers to general buildings.

Kim Min-seok, Head of the Building Business Division at Hanwha Construction Division, said, “This project is significant as it represents a digital transformation in the construction sector by extending BIM into the operation phase,” adding, “The company will continue to enhance its capabilities in autonomous building operation technology based on AI and digital twin solutions.”

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