Schneider Electric platform offers cleaner, efficient solutions for industrial energy management

This solution is said to reduce engineering design time by up to 80%, maintenance costs by 75%, and carbon emissions by 50%.

In 2010, an energy manager usually spends their whole day interacting with the local utility company to ensure service and costs were being managed effectively. At that time, few organisations used renewable energy. Today, the grid looks very different as a result of the massive growth in renewables and shale gas, concerns about nuclear generation, and less use of coal assets, according to a survey by Schneider Electric titled Insights: 2020 Corporate Energy and Sustainability Progress Report.

The report, conducted with the help of market research firm GreenBiz, further revealed that the rise of ageing infrastructure had compelled the need for decentralised solutions such as onsite generation, battery storage, and microgrids. These new-generation grids consist of cleaner, more networked digital assets.

Plug-and-Play Solution

With the advent of Industry 4.0 or the so-called Industrial Edge, Schneider Electric has developed EcoStruxure, a flexible portfolio of resilient, secure, and sustainable colocation software that helps organisations more efficiently manage their infrastructures.

“EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s Internet of Things-enabled, plug-and-play, open, interoperable architecture and platform for homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure, and industries,” said Schneider Electric Vietnam.

This platform features “innovation at every level, from connected products to edge control, and apps, analytics, and services,” the company added. 

Targeted at Schneider Electric’s partners and customers, EcoStruxure features advanced monitoring, efficient planning, and digital and on-site support capabilities to anticipate and mitigate risks of power failure, receive proactive insights and actionable recommendations, as well as optimise infrastructure performance and savings across the lifecycle of digital devices.

The platform can be deployed in a wide array of industries that require a large amount of electricity to operate, such as Automotive, Mobility Cloud and Service Providers, Commercial Real Estate, Data Centers and Networks, Internal Electricity Companies, Facility Management, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, Hotels, Life Sciences, Machinery, Marine, Metals, Minerals, and Cement Mining, Oil and Gas, Process Automation, Retail, Water, and Wastewater.

“Industrial companies are becoming increasingly interested in remote operations and for good reason. With Industry 4.0 and the right level of cybersecurity, remote management allows factory operators to continue to adjust processes, conduct maintenance, and make operational decisions with actionable insights — even when access to the physical plant is restricted,” said the company.

“Today, there's an increasing need for data crunching capabilities at the edge. Applications such as asset management, for example, need to monitor performance and process data in real-time to work properly.” the company added.

Data: The Heart of the Platform

At the heart of EcoStruxure are cloud-based, data-gathering, and analytics capabilities across an organisation’s energy-related functions, enabling the business to operate safely, securely, reliably, and sustainably. The full suite of predictive and prescriptive tools—consisting of EcoStruxure Building, EcoStruxure Plant & Machine, EcoStruxure Grid, EcoStruxure IT, EcoStruxure Power, and EcoStruxure Platform—covers multiple energy-management functions across an organisation.

“The solution's expanded IoT connects devices to each other, improving data-processing capabilities and assisting customers in optimising the ability to control and run the system onsite or through cloud computing. This solution assists enterprises in developing large-scale information technology solutions, utilising energy effectively, and increasing market competitiveness, the firm explained.

Imagine a platform that can track materials and equipment performance, collect this critical data from IoT-connected sensors and other devices and monitoring software, take them to the cloud, and analyse the information to uncover meaningful, actionable insights in real-time. This chain of functions is what allows organisations to optimise for sustainability and improve monitoring and reporting across their value chains.

Zero Carbon Project

All these enhancements redound to customers’ improved profitability and reduced carbon footprint. 

“Our EcoStruxure energy management and industrial automation solutions are specifically designed to improve productivity, efficiency and help companies drive their growth without sacrificing sustainability,” the company said.

As proof, the EcoStruxure solution has provided significant benefits for Schneider Electric and its partners, including engineering design time reductions of up to 80% and savings of up to 75% in maintenance, resulting in a 50% reduction in carbon emissions.

To demonstrate its commitment to sustainability, Schneider Electric launched its Zero Carbon Project in April 2021. Under this initiative, the company will partner with its top 1,000 suppliers—which represent 70% of Schneider’s supplier emissions—to reduce their operations’ CO2 emissions by 50% in 2025. The initiative is part of Schneider’s goal of limiting the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5°C or less by 2100, based on the Paris Agreement.

Across the world, smart technologies are helping businesses simultaneously improve sustainability and productivity, Mr. Dong Mai Lam emphasised that, as a leading corporation in digitising energy management and automation programmes in more than 100 countries, Schneider Electric is committed to accompanying the government, organisations and businesses seeking appropriate solutions to promote long-term development goals in a sustainable way. For each strategic area, Schneider will continue to research, apply, and deploy innovative and breakthrough solutions to help organizations, businesses, and countries accelerate the process of industrialisation, modernisation. To achieve "zero" net emissions by 2050, we have to optimise all operations and improve efficiency. Accordingly, on the EcoStruxure platform of Schneider Electric, we also offer specialised solutions such as EcoStruxure Building, EcoStruxure Machine, EcoStruxure Grid, EcoStruxure IT, and EcoStruxure Power.

For these, Schneider Electric Vietnam was recognised with the Vietnam Digital Experience of the Year - Energy award at the recently concluded Asian Experience Awards 2022.

The Asian Experience Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for providing meaningful brand experiences to stakeholders, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].