How “Digital Twins” Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification

A case study by RMI detailing how the City of Ithaca used digital building modeling tools, developed by Cornell University’s Environmental System Lab and RMI, to plan the electrification of 5,468 buildings to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

• The City of Ithaca aims to reach city-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 by electrifying its entire building stock. To plan this, Cornell University’s Environmental System Lab (ESL) and RMI created a socioeconomic urban building energy model analyzing 5,468 buildings to determine the most cost-effective retrofit measures and identify priority properties for decarbonization, particularly to support socially vulnerable communities.
• The analysis indicates that improving the building envelope (such as adding insulation and upgrading windows) is critical before installing air-source heat pumps (ASHP). In Ithaca's cold climate, ASHPs alone can increase average monthly energy costs by $43; however, combining them with envelope improvements reduces monthly operating expenses by an average of $330 and allows for smaller heating equipment (reducing from 3.5 tons to 2 tons on average). This approach limits the community-wide electricity demand increase to approximately 13%, compared to over 33% without insulation improvements.
• Integrating rooftop solar with electrification further improves cost-effectiveness due to high electricity rates and New York's net-metering policy. For a typical pre-1980 townhome in Ithaca, combining ASHP and envelope improvements saves $45 annually; adding solar panels increases these annual energy cost savings to approximately $1,742, totaling over $12,400 in savings over 15 years compared to a gas furnace and central air-conditioner.
• The modeling identified specific building archetypes for prioritization based on cost-benefit ratios. Group A, consisting of residential homes in low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities, is a high priority because envelope improvements are highly beneficial and these homes can access funding programs like the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate and the Affordable Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program (AMEEP). Group B, comprising certain commercial buildings in the downtown area, also offers high emissions reduction opportunities due to their large floor areas and high energy consumption compared to residential properties.

APA

Tang, J., Tseng, H. M., & Dogan, T. (2024). How “Digital Twins” Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification. RMI. https://rmi.org/resources/how-digital-twins-are-enabling-city-wide-electrification/

Chicago

Tang, Jingyi, Hung Ming Tseng, and Timur Dogan. How “Digital Twins” Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification. RMI, 2024. https://rmi.org/resources/how-digital-twins-are-enabling-city-wide-electrification/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tang |first1=Jingyi |last2=Tseng |first2=Hung Ming |last3=Dogan |first3=Timur |title=How “Digital Twins” Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification |publisher=RMI |date=27 September 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/how-digital-twins-are-enabling-city-wide-electrification/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tang2024how, author = {Tang, Jingyi and Tseng, Hung Ming and Dogan, Timur}, title = {{How “Digital Twins” Are Enabling City-Wide Electrification}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/how-digital-twins-are-enabling-city-wide-electrification/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }