As the global community unites to fix the emission mistakes of the last 50, Schneider Electric South Africa has a clear view of the energy challenge. “We need new solutions, new thinking and new companies to lead us into an era in which we can truly do more while consuming less,” says Gys Snyman, vice president energy efficiency at Schneider Electric South Africa.
The solutions to the energy challenge are multiple and complex. In most cases, they rely on a stronger and more efficient collaboration between key stakeholders, including facility and security managers, IT managers and machine or production managers. “Requisite levels of business efficiency involve system dynamics across platforms and providers like never before,” adds Snyman.
Doing more with less is a familiar mantra at companies in South Africa and around the world, especially when it concerns energy use. Managers at all levels are looking for meaningful ways to reduce energy consumption and boost performance for the sake of the environment as well as the bottom line.
According to the World Energy Outlook 2009, as energy demands escalate from all aspects of commerce and culture, the most acute pain point is that due to intrinsic inefficiencies, 33 units of energy consumed at the point of use require 100 units of primary energy – the coal used to supply that energy unit. “It follows that the war on waste will deliver the best returns for business,” says Snyman. “But before you can drive business efficiencies and save energy, you have to be able to see it, that is where solutions from Schneider Electric add value.
“Our EcoStruxure Active Energy Management architecture is Schneider Electric’s response to the energy challenge as it turns a business into an efficient enterprise. That is, the solution is our method to create intelligent energy management systems that are simple, save money, and most importantly, reduce waste by enabling guaranteed compatibility between five critical domains: power, process and machine, IT room, building and security management.
“It is a proven methodology that empowers organisations to identify potential savings through increased visibility of their energy consumption, electrical equipment benchmarking and estimated ROI reporting. As a comprehensive, integrated approach designed for the digital economy, it can deliver capital and operational savings of up to 30%.”
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