Colombia. Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, announced the introduction of EcoStruxure Power, a digital architecture for energy management in buildings that offers significantly greater value to industry professionals, including contractors, engineers, consultants, board builders and their end customers.
With open integration, operations, real-time analytics, and increasing levels of cybersecurity, the state-of-the-art architecture enables users to take full advantage of the new opportunities created by smart devices and digitalization to deliver greater reliability, security, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity to their customers across multiple industries.
EcoStruxure Power is part of Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure architecture, an open, interoperable system architecture for buildings, infrastructure, industry and data centers. It brings together the company's industry-leading, connected products such as edge control, applications, analytics and services into an integrated framework for all areas of distribution chains and energy management.
"EcoStruxure Power responds to a paradigm shift in the energy industry, as the world of energy is going through more decentralization, decarbonization, digitalization and a stronger use of electricity," said Philippe Delorme, member of the Steering Committee and executive vice president of Building & IT Business at Schneider Electric.
"We are leveraging advances in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics and cybersecurity technologies in a set of connected tools for the energy management industry. By acting on real-time data from any number of IoT-enabled sources, our customers can improve operational and energy efficiency and take their operations directly into the future."
Progress at three levels
EcoStruxure Power provides the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of interoperable and cloud-connected and/or on-premises technologies organized around its three main layers of technological innovation:
At the base level are connected products that collect and distribute information, including state-of-the-art low-voltage circuit breakers with the industry's first built-in Class 1 measurement for seamless integration of the Smart Panel; and SM6 IoT-smart switchgear with connected devices for 24/7 connectivity and excellent efficiency.
The second level, known as edge control, allows real-time management of operations, either on-site or through the cloud. For example, EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert, an open, interoperable and scalable power management software suite, grants real-time monitoring of energy conditions to help improve efficiency and reliability; and EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation provides rapid data acquisition monitoring while improving the power availability of electrical distribution networks.
At the third level are applications, analytics and services that enable customers to make informed and timely decisions to ensure reliability, reduce costs and increase efficiency. For example, EcoStruxure Asset Advisor services provide predictive analytics to help ensure a company's critical operations operate securely through continuous monitoring of connected and critical products.
Improvements for different installations
In large, critical buildings, uptime is paramount. In many large facilities, for example, power outages can cost more than $1 million per day, and endanger the lives of employees and visitors. Meanwhile, operation and maintenance costs can account for up to 80 percent of the total lifecycle cost over a 50-year period. EcoStruxure Power improves power availability and safety in these buildings by monitoring the grid and increasing protection against crashes, fires and explosions.
In large industrial facilities, reliability is critical to ensuring productivity and operational efficiency. On the other hand, for companies looking to expand, a high level of productivity and efficiency can be the keys that unlock growth. Equipped with the right data, knowledge and optimization, industrial facilities can alleviate the cost of expansion and open up new avenues of innovation.
An example of this was a paper mill which chose to apply Schneider Electric solutions, in its results it is estimated that it saved more than one million dollars in the construction of its new cogeneration plants. Extensive monitoring, analysis and control was used to improve electrical systems and avoid unnecessary downtime. Thanks to EcoStruxure power management software, they improved site planning and operational reliability for the expansion of their facilities.
Small and medium-sized buildings often have limited staff on site. EcoStruxure Power provides simple cloud-based tools to facilitate the automation of more reliable maintenance operations to quickly apply corrective measures in the event of an outage.
For example, facility or property managers can receive automatic notifications of outages and monitor power consumption through a simple dashboard. A Schneider Electric customer achieved 30 percent savings by installing connected panels, monitoring them and applying corrective actions based on an analysis of the data received. Another customer receives automatic outage notifications for 60 connected installations and can track energy consumption through a simple control panel.
