Global energy demand is set to double by 2050 and, in this same time period, the world needs to reduce carbon emissions by half to avoid dramatic climate changes. “There are many energy issues linked with population expansion, which include scarcity of natural resources, access to energy and hazards to people and the environment,” says Shaun Wilson, professional services director at Schneider Electric South Africa. “The key indicator that enables us to achieve today’s energy challenges is energy efficiency, something that needs to be realised by solutions if they are to be able to make the most of the planet’s energy.”
He says that against this backdrop, Schneider Electric continuously endeavours to create innovative solutions to meet the world’s energy challenges, including making the ‘smart grid’ concept a reality and providing energy efficiency to people in their everyday lives, from homes right through to industrial facilities.
According to Wilson, Schneider Electric’s R&D talent pool encompasses 11 000 technical and R&D engineers located across the world. These specialists create innovative solutions through internal and external collaborations with universities, laboratories and industries around the world, as well as via customer participation and interaction. The companies R&D hubs are located in Boston, Monterrey, Grenoble, Shanghai and Bangalore.
In order to deliver on energy efficiency strategy, Schneider Electric focuses its innovation efforts on three complementary areas: making energy digital, designing flexible energy platforms and delivering scalable energy efficiency solutions. The company defines these areas as follows:
Making energy digital
Energy efficiency starts with making energy digital, thus allowing energy information to flow across the entire value chain. This helps to:
* Measure and control energy at the lowest possible level, from simple inexpensive monitoring to sophisticated power quality analysis.
* Use this information intelligently in control systems to ‘energy optimise’ homes, buildings, data centres and industrial processes.
* Understand energy usage across the network to support end-to-end optimisation and connection to the distribution grid.
Designing flexible energy management platforms
These three levels of energy information integrate seamlessly to form an ‘energy management platform’ that can be deployed into highly efficient, yet flexible solutions.
* Web services on an IP backbone standardise communication of energy information.
* These web services connect dedicated software ‘components’, combining them into powerful solutions.
* These solutions use role-based interfaces to provide the right information in the right context, at the disposal of users.
Delivering scalable energy efficiency solutions
Finally, major efforts go into ensuring these solutions are easy to deploy and use.
* Energy management architectures are pre-packaged into energy efficiency solutions for the market.
* These solutions can be deployed either progressively, or using cloud based technology or by using traditional delivery methods.
* An extended range of innovative services, from energy audits to performance based contracts support the deployment of the solutions.
“Schneider Electric stands firm in its vision to make energy safe, reliable, efficient, easy to use and green through its innovative energy efficiency solutions. The key to this is having all stakeholders work together to bring in the best solutions and combine them, collaborating across sectors, to ensure cost-effectiveness and compliance over time,” concludes Wilson.
For more information contact Belinda Aslett, Schneider Electric SA, +27 (0)11 254 6400, belinda.aslett@schneider-electric.com, www.schneider-electric.com
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