Schneider EcoStruxure Automation Expert designed for digital

Schneider Electric hosted the Innovation Summit World 2020 virtually today.

Opening the proceedings, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric, said that we have digitized a number of processes. We are also focusing on climate change. When we are forced to change, we can, as Covid-19 has shown us.  Our mission is to provide digital experience for the customers. We now need to make the world change practically. We also need to find new ways to support customers in new, effective manners.

Tricoire urged the attendees to accelerate their digital transformation to better position themselves for the upheaval caused by both the climate crisis and the global pandemic that has swept the world in 2020.

He said: “Across the globe, in just a few months, our lives have changed – and digitalization has helped us to adapt to the new normal. Digitized remote operations can maintain business continuity, strengthen resiliency, and offer insights to better anticipate and adapt with agility. Digital innovation and connectivity have changed how we work and live together, and can positively change our impact on the environment, and drive economic recovery and sustainability for us all.”

Philippe Delorme, Executive VP, Energy Management, Schneider Electric noted that electricity is the best technology today. The world has gone through four technology revolutions. Today, we are seeing Electricity 4.0! Electricity is the most efficient energy.

There are three examples -- data centers, construction, and green. With new digital life, data centers are the backbone. They also have to be reliable. We partnered with a company in Sweden recently. This data center is among the best in the world today. We need to be smarter and more flexible. In Egypt, we have a customer who is using the Schneider EcoStruxure solution. In construction, the sector has yet to exploit the benefit of digitization. New innovation and digital connectivity are now helping.

We are going to drive productivity in the future. We have three new innovations for the data center. We are also supporting our partners, with energy management programs.

Early this month, Peter Weckesser, Chief Digital Officer of Schneider Electric, on behalf of Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider Electric Chairman and CEO, and CEOs from 11 other European companies, joined forces for a zero-carbon future and a more resilient Europe. The European Union is committed to net zero emissions by 2050, which is in line with the CEO Alliance companies’ own decarbonization strategies.

Peter Herweck, Member of the Executive Committee, Executive Vice President Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric, added that people will retain agility for providing output. We are also looking to increase the productivity. There are things like cloud and ML. The toolbox from Schneider helps them in these respects. We need to drive productivity. We also require sustainability in all the operations. We are assuring this in Brazil, in one of the largest plants. We have helped leverage their operational efficiency by 15%.

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We are announcing three game-changing products. They allow more efficiency and resiliency. There is open automation. We are announcing the Automation Expert. It will decouple hardware and software. There will be more software-centric industrial automation. The Schneider EcoStruxure Automation Expert is designed for digital.

The EcoStruxure Automation Expert will help you rethink engineering by taking a software-centric approach that:​

* Automates low-value engineering tasks so engineers are free to innovate and focus on high-value add​.
* Enables efficient wrap and reuse of automation objects to ensure you can make the most of what you already have and easily update and upgrade.
* Provides rapid agility to process changes – so you can design and reconfigure processes on the fly.
* Bridges the divide between IT and OT systems so you can create operational effectiveness we could only dream of a decade ago.​
* Is vendor-agnostic - EcoStruxure Automation Expert is based on the IEC 61499 standard for portability and interoperability.

The second product is looking at reducing the energy consumption. Third, we are aiming to increase the profitability for our customers. We are committed to break down the industrial silos, as well.

Schneider Electric announced the following:

* A new category of automation, EcoStruxure Automation Expert, the world’s first software-centric industrial automation system creating step-change improvements throughout the complete operational lifecycle.

* A new range of low-voltage switchboards, PrismaSeT Active, and a new generation of breakers, ComPacT, to be released in 2021, that unlock crucial information related to electrical fire risk and power availability within the electrical systems of buildings.

The cloud-connectivity of PrismaSeT Active allows users to continuously monitor power distribution and receive notifications in case of hazardous power losses. The new generation of ComPacT takes power availability to the next level with major ergonomic improvements, as well as connectivity-ready and modular plug-and-play accessories to expand the capacity for advanced monitoring capabilities.

* An innovative green switchgear, SM AirSeT, which uses an ingenious combination of air and vacuum technology instead of SF6, a greenhouse gas commonly contained in electrical equipment used to power the grid and industrial electrical installations. The new technology offers a pathway to avoid the equivalence of millions of tons of CO2 in energy networks. Its extensive IoT connectivity also unlocks the benefits of data and analytics for network management and optimization.