Schneider Electric Blog

The UN weather agency recently announced that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased at record-breaking speed in 2016, meaning that rapid cuts to CO2 and other greenhouse gases are now needed to avoid “dangerous temperature increases” by 2100 that would far surpass targets set in the Paris climate accord.

The IEA estimates that buildings currently account for about 33% of global energy use – more than industry or transportation – and 20% of energy-related GHG emissions. By 2050, 66% of the world’s people will be living in cities, consuming over 80% of the world’s electricity. Driven by these trends, your facility team may be facing corporate mandates and government regulations aimed at making your building, campus, or plant more efficient and sustainable. But you’re also likely dealing with higher capital and operational expenditures, and increasingly complex building systems.

But there’s cause for optimism. The IFMA estimates that with active controls, a 50% increase in efficiency can be expected. And with proactive, predictive maintenance and analytics you can save up to 20% per year on maintenance and energy costs. What’s needed is the right combination of tools. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) offers an answer. In this blog series, we’ll look at seven IoT-related innovations that are converging to create intelligent buildings that minimize energy use, optimize performance and lifespan of physical assets, and ensure the safety, security, and efficiency of people and processes.

The new IoT architecture

Navigant Research envisions that “2017 is poised to tip the scales for investment in intelligent building technologies.” By 2020, total smart devices in buildings will reach 4.4 billion, maybe as high as 10 billion.

These smart devices enable your facility team to deeply access your power network by measuring, collecting data, and providing control functions. Digital power meters, power quality meters, and smart circuit breakers measure all aspects of electricity and other utilities. They also monitor equipment performance and alarm on threats to reliability or efficiency. It’s now possible to meter energy and other parameters at every key point throughout your facility’s power network, from the main utility incomes down to individual plug loads. This will reveal every instance of energy waste while helping your maintenance team address risks before they can cause downtime or damage.

Device connectivity gives you the reach you need across your entire facility or beyond. Smart devices and gateways connect over wireless or Ethernet, with data often accessible through any web browser or mobile device. Extensible networks allow the integration of all your distributed energy resources such as solar, storage, EV chargers, and CHP.

Data is aggregated to cloud-hosted repositories that share data with everyone that needs it, using a choice of analytic platforms including power and energy management, building management, and asset management. If you need outside support, an IoT network makes it easy to access remote monitoring, maintenance, and engineering consultation services.

Compared to traditional solutions, the connectivity, interoperability, and cloud-based architecture of IoT-enabled solutions make them easier to install and use, as well as being a more affordable option for small and medium-sized buildings.

Power meets building management

Industry analyst Verdantix notes that “the majority of solution and service providers are now integrating some aspects of power, building, asset, and maintenance management.” Integrating these systems broadens energy and operational insight, as well as helping catalyze collaboration across facility teams.

IoT-enabled networks allow management of energy, HVAC, fire, and security to be more tightly integrated. This gives facility teams a unified source of data, and a unified view of operational conditions. Data can be shared between systems or power management capabilities can be embedded directly into the building management system, for example. This helps put occupant comfort and energy efficiency in proper, balanced context.

Going mobile

Gartner estimates that by 2022, 70% of all software interactions will occur on mobile. Smartphones or tablets are being used more and more by operations and maintenance teams to access data from equipment, perform control actions from a safe distance, and contact expert services when needed.

Teams in large buildings typically use computerized maintenance management systems to keep records of physical assets and to schedule and confirm work performed. For small and medium buildings, new cloud-based mobile maintenance software is designed to be more accessible and interactive, for a more collaborative approach between facility managers and contracted technical services.

These systems stay connected to IoT-enabled assets, helping monitor equipment performance, as well as sending alarms to smart phones or tablets to alert the facility manager and contractors of any immediate maintenance needs. In this way, the system gives visibility to everyone, helps prioritize and manage work, improves response times, and enables predictive maintenance to boost operational performance.

From ‘big data’ to big decisions

Having IoT-enabled devices throughout your facility’s infrastructure is highly valuable, but also results in ‘big data.’ To make sense of it all, specialized analytic software converts granular data into dashboards, key performance indicators, graphical views, and reports. Some solutions allow information to be tailored for each type of user, simplifying understanding and speeding up decision-making.

Energy and power analytics can address many applications, including:

• Allocating energy costs to drive energy-efficient behaviors
• Analyzing energy consumption to help optimize equipment settings
• Comparing energy performance, setting baselines, tracking the progress of initiatives, and validating savings
• Determining the most cost-effective times to self-consume renewable energy resources
• Model and predict energy needs to optimize energy costs and avoid utility penalties
• Calculating carbon footprint to support sustainability reporting
• Using predictive techniques, like breaker aging analysis, to reduce maintenance requirements while improving service continuity
• Isolate sources of power problems to improve response times
• Find hidden spare capacity that can be used without compromising reliability

In my next post I’ll discuss the remaining three converging innovations: cloud computing, using external data, and cybersecurity. To learn more about this subject, download the white paper ‘How IoT In Buildings Is Unifying Operations, Catalyzing Efficiency, And Boosting Uptime’ and visit our solutions page.

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As Sri Lanka’s largest hotel and one of the Cinnamon Group’s premiere properties, the five-star Cinnamon Grand Colombo hotel is a bona fide crown jewel in their chain of fourteen high-end properties. This exquisite hotel offers an experience that is a fusion of tropical paradise and metropolitan sophistication. From its 501 beautifully appointed guest rooms to multiple restaurants, event spaces, pools, gyms, and outdoor venues, the Cinnamon Grand Colombo creates moments and memories on a grand scale. But how does a hotel provide outstanding guest experiences while meeting aggressive sustainability goals? A combination of expertise, guaranteed energy savings, and IoT solutions not only met the challenge, but delivered significant results.

The Cinnamon Group required measurable energy savings and an ROI of three years with zero disruption to operations. To meet these goals, they partnered with Lanka Energy Conservation (LEC), an associate company of Perth Eco Power, a provider with 100 years of combined industry experience in energy conservation services across Australia and Asia Pacific. The result of this partnership was an award-winning project that the team delivered ahead of schedule, which included the first commercially guaranteed energy savings contract in Sri Lanka, and which—as a successful pilot—set a new standard in energy efficiency for region hotels.

Being the biggest comes with its challenges

Being the largest hotel in Sri Lanka, the Cinnamon Grand Colombo posed some specific problems for the operations staff. The scale of the space made it impossible for operations staff to accurately identify specific areas where energy waste was a problem. In addition, the existing combination of old and new system components required a solution that would allow for the seamless integration of the mechanical and electrical plants while simultaneously providing visibility into the data so that the operations team could develop effective energy saving strategies.

EcoStruxure Building—the IoT solution that goes beyond traditional BMS

LEC chose Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Building solution as the best solution to upgrade the hotel’s existing building management system (BMS). Their selection was based on the system’s ability to deliver three key results: seamless integration with other systems and devices, visibility into energy use, and—of course—overall energy savings.

The EcoStruxure architecture and platform provide an open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system that combines proven software with innovative hardware to connect every element of the system over a single IP backbone. For the Cinnamon Grand Colombo, the team implemented the EcoStruxure solution to integrate the hotel’s electrical and mechanical plants including building systems for air conditioning, exhaust, ventilation fans, pumps, steam and hot water boilers, energy meters, and high-efficiency magnetic bearing chillers from Smardt.

Guaranteed Energy Savings, Awards, and the Future

Along with this advanced turn-key retrofit solution, LEC also included a guaranteed energy savings contract that stipulates an energy reduction of nine million kWh and 160 million Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) over the course of 3.7 years with a three-year payback on the investment.

“International and local hotel chains require building management applications that go beyond traditional BMS. They need smart, interoperable solutions that run on a proven technology platform, backed by continuous R&D,” says Rukshan Sheriff, VP of Business Development for LEC’s associate company, Perth Eco Power. “Schneider Electric’s innovative EcoStruxure Building offering, which includes EcoStruxure Building Operation software, meets those needs.”

Adding to multiple sustainability awards, the project also won a prestigious bronze award in the Large Scale category of the 2016 Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards (SLEENA). LEC was also recognized at that award ceremony for Best Energy Services Company.

Looking ahead, the Cinnamon Group is exploring how to replicate the success of the pilot project at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. The team has already set their sights on gold at next year’s SLEENA awards.  

To learn more about how Schneider Electric’s partnership with LEC helped the Cinnamon Group meet their ambitious goals for the Cinnamon Grand Colombo, read the full case study. You can also read about our EcoStruxure Building solutions for Fort Garry Hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Dubai Mall of the Emirates, and Hilton Worldwide, or explore Schneider Electric’s full portfolio of hotel solutions.

The post IoT Delivers Guaranteed Energy Savings and Multiple Awards for Cinnamon Grand Colombo Hotel appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

At #SchneiderElectric, we strive to change the world through innovation at every level, and in order to achieve this we know it’s essential to take our people seriously. There are many actions that substantiate this statement, the most recent being our #GlobalFamilyLeavePolicy that ensures all employees in all countries have a fundamental access to paid leave, enabling us to take care of our families in vulnerable moments. Schneider Electric appreciates what makes you you — your talent within talent. We’re a dynamic, global company looking for passionate people to help us innovate at every level; champions of safe, reliable, efficient, sustainable and connected energy for everyone.

This year, the seven countries in the Nordics and Baltics came together to create an onboarding program for recent graduates. The goal was to take a new approach to how IoT affects our business by merging up-to-date academic knowledge and digital natives into a business in the middle of a technological revolution, to create a new generation of sales engineers.

“I expect to be introduced to the products and solutions that Schneider Electric provides to the market. Furthermore to gain knowledge around the B2B sales process and getting a variety of tools to use to convince the influents within a project to choose to go with Schneider’s offers.”

– Anders Christensen, Specifier Sales Specialist

We took on 17 highly technical recent engineering graduates with a very healthy gender balance. They will all embark on a 10-month journey in the Schneider Electric universe, preparing them to bring a more holistic approach to new projects as well as knitting the region closer together. The program started with a three-month education scheme at our Northern Europe HQ in Copenhagen, taking our new colleagues through Schneider Electric products, solutions and principles of business.

“I’m not assigned to any specific task right now unless project “Buzz” which mean to promote and tell “outside the SE world” about opportunities a employee can get at the company and of course delivering the message about Energy generation program.”

– Hanna Belavus, Sales Specifier Engineer

They will visit with our state of the art R&D facilities, receive training from several of Schneider Electric’s experts, and build a collaborative network that unites the region’s cultures, disciplines and best practices.

After passing the initial 3-month stage, they will return to their respective countries to start their on-the-job training, followed by more visits to Copenhagen to align and exchange experiences. By the summer of 2018 we expect them to have the foundation needed to truly start their career journey, driving change through digitalization of energy management and automation solutions, as trusted advisors to prescribers of large projects.

Bringing this program together took a massive effort, and over 70 Schneider Electric employees from HR, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management and Learning Solution as well as Business managers and professionals have invested their stakes and collaborated in creating the Energy Generation program. We are quite proud of our new colleagues, and if you want to see what they are up to, check out the tag #EnergyGeneration2017 on LinkedIn.

Find out more about how great people make Schneider Electric a great company.

 

 

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Over the years, the Oil & Gas industry had come to accept that capital projects involved long execution times, high costs and, in some cases, a high degree of risk.  In an era where profits were relatively easy to come by and oil prices were high, project delays and costly project restarts were often considered “business as usual.”  In the new world of low commodity prices, and oversupply ̶ however, this “business as usual” approach to project execution is no longer sustainable.

These new marketplace variables drive to one fundamental challenge: how Oil & Gas companies can reinvent their business to maintain profitability in a low-price environment.

Fortunately, a new approach for improving oil & gas industry efficiency and profitability is now available to facilitate business process transformation and simplification. Advancements in digitization, system convergence, and analytics now make it possible to overcome business barriers that were once constrained by technology limitations and high costs.

Consider Distributed Control Systems (DCS), for example. These systems were originally designed to manage process control. In today’s world, the DCS system is capable of much more, such as building efficiencies and value by aligning with other operational areas such as power, safety management, and business systems.

Flexible, lean execution

The ability to enable convergence of these once siloed domains is enabling an evolution in how these systems can drive corporate profitability. Intelligence embedded in processes and analytics programs that parse through process device data, allow engineers and operators to now make profitability-based decisions.

On the engineering front, for example, technology vendors like Schneider Electric offer frameworks and accompanying process simulation tools that focus on “early data” to help mitigate the human error influence on project execution.  Data is validated as early as possible in the project lifecycle (according to ARC, about 80% of plant capital costs are fixed in the early stages of a design) so that rework costs further down the line are drastically reduced. Front End Engineering Design (FEED) is an area that’s evolving as a result and, in the process, is reducing costs and providing business benefit across the project lifecycle.

Across the area of operations, open and interoperable systems are converging so that profitability, and not technology, becomes the driver for the decision-making. Intelligent Power & Motor Control Centers (IPMCC) serve as a good example of how these systems drive profitability through a combination of improved operational efficiency, improved safety, and improved asset reliability. In nondigitized systems, Motor Control Centers and low voltage systems that are linked to a DCS require many cables and a significant assortment of hardware in order to function properly. In the newly converged digitized systems, an element of “smart” low voltage emerges which enables a reduction of cables, faster commissioning, easier maintenance and an optimized footprint. Such systems are designed around a profit engine functional architecture that combines process and low voltage electrical measurement and control. By closely linking electrical and automation systems, risks are reduced, costs are lowered and process and energy efficiency is improved.

Oil & Gas industry leaders now possess the means to address current market-driven efficiency, cost control and profitability challenges. Chevron Oil, for example, used digitalized tools to cut the commissioning time in half, which resulted in $840K in savings. The various systems link together in a synchronized fashion very quickly because communication protocols are standardized. Connected products are designed to identify and communicate with each other automatically through machine-to-machine communication. Field commissioning time for instrument technicians and system integrators was also cut by 20%.

By encouraging their executive teams to embrace a business approach that reexamines existing processes and prioritizes standardization, simplification and integration of operations, healthy profits can still be realized, even in an economy where Oil & Gas prices are relatively low.

For more information on how Oil & Gas companies are adapting to the new realities of low market price conditions, download the new Schneider Electric white paper “How Oil & Gas Technology Investments Help Executives Secure Project Payback in a Low Commodity Price Environment.”

 

 

[IMAGE: PROJECT LIFECYCLE GRAPHIC]

 

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As the housing inventory continues to thin, many people are investing in improvements to their current home rather than moving to a new one. But rather than prettying them up with a fresh coat of paint or adding amenities like wine cellars and swimming pools, homeowners are choosing to make their homes smarter, greener, and more reflective of their lifestyle. Here are top trends driving the home renovation market.

Smart home

While there’s been a steady rise in smart-appliance adoption, we are on the cusp of a connected-home boom. According to market research firm Statista, the global smart-home market is forecast to reach a value of more than 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

More and more home buyers consider the integration of smart home technologies critical to their renovation project. Intelligent home security devices, climate control products, and lighting and entertainment systems top renovators’ wish lists. What once seemed like science fiction is becoming commonplace, thanks to the proliferation of voice-activated assistants like Amazon Alexa that let homeowners turn on their oven or tell the thermostat to turn down the heat with a simple voice command.

Modular design

Flexibility is a key component of today’s home renovations. People want to design their homes to better fit — and change with—their lifestyles.

This is seen most vividly in kitchens, where homeowners can customize the layout to their needs with modular appliances. Instead of one full-size refrigerator, for example, homeowners may use two narrower column-style refrigerators, one with meal ingredients close to the food prep area and another with snacks and other ready-to-eat items that’s easily accessible to all family members. Modular cabinets with contrasting designs and finishes are often used to add visual interest and define separate areas of your kitchen.

The mix-and-match trend is even trickling down to light switches and electrical outlets. Homeowners can customize these fittings with colored veneers and graphic patterns to match the look of the room or to reflect their personality.

Electrical fittings are crafted with a range of materials and textures, each making a statement about you and your home. Wood and minerals have a rustic charm and elicit feelings of warmth while metals and glass convey a modern sleekness. Similarly, warm, vibrant colors energize a room while soft, cool colors evoke calm and relaxation.

Take a cue from one or more these trends upgrade your home. It will not only give it a fresh face, but also improve its efficiency and comfort.

The post The Top Trends That are Transforming the Renovation Market appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

I’m sure many would agree with me that a current hot topic in the industry is ‘energy efficiency’. The reasons behind this excitement from the business world is simple; using less energy helps reduce operational costs, as well as supports efforts to restore the health of local environments, making it a profitable and popular decision. Further, being more efficient positively impacts financial performance, an important motivator for multinational companies, who regularly seek out professional energy management consultants to improve and promote their energy efficiency. At Schneider Electric, we know this well as a specialist in the field of energy management for more than 180 years.

The world today does not need additional energy. Rather than focusing on generating new energy, we should create alternatives that can make more efficient use of our current energy supply. So far, Schneider Electric has been engaged in energy management activities with many companies around the world. What’s more, we’ve been actively involved in the development of smart-city projects. Our hope is that many more cities will become “smart” to extend energy efficiency and energy management out beyond our enterprises and into the family home.

As the global expert in the field of energy management, our purpose expresses our vision. We say ‘Life Is On’. For us it literally means that our innovations help people to live richer lives, at any time, all over the world. For example, enabling smart and energy efficient power networks across a whole country, will mean that access to affordable lighting and heating in their homes is a reality – this meaningful purpose of what we do drives us.

Additionally, we are seeing a drastic shift in the future of energy. This change is being brought about by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and it’s sketching a rosy picture for the years to come. With IIoT we are seeing a fundamental change to production models of old in a shift that many analysts are calling the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Since the 1990s, Schneider has been developing IIoT-enabled technology. In 1997, we deployed our first IIoT-based product in the form of software that connected Ethernet communication to hardware and machinery. This was the birth of the concept of the ‘transparent factory’. Today, the importance of IIoT is growing at an astronomical rate. Schneider Electric’s technology has evolved with the times to play a big role in this coming industrial digitization. Our technology has been instrumental in the connection of products, systems, hardware, machines and the cloud. But at the heart of this change have our people. We believe that developing breakthroughs are an inherent human ability that should be fostered carefully. It’s something that’s part of our DNA and for this reason, we cultivate talented people to challenge to status quo.  This way we can simultaneously develop their professional abilities and ensure that at the core of this people transformation, as well as technology, we move forward.

Intrinsic to our continued success is the diversity and inclusion of our people and therefore thinking. The basic principle is to recognize the characteristics of our unique people, we embrace all backgrounds and experiences, with a high-performance expectation in all that we do. Our diverse teams work together with a meaningful purpose in over 100 countries. This collaboration mindset naturally leads to new innovations and fresh ideas.

Our Diversity and Inclusion objectives are ambitious and transparent – in recent times focusing on gender equality. Specifically, Schneider Electric has made three commitments as a HeForShe Impact Corporate Champion. First, we have committed to implement a global salary equity review process that covers over 85% of our workforce.  As of the end of 2017, we have met this goal but more importantly, through this process, we are implementing actions for addressing pay equity gaps. Second, we plan to steadily expand the proportion of female employees within the company. We plan to increase the proportion of women by ensuring 40% of new hires are women and increasing representation of women in our top leadership to 30%. As of April 2017, Schneider Electric’s board consisted of 42% female executives. Lastly, we have a dedicated executive level Diversity & Inclusion board that focuses on D&I strategy and our gender equality policy.  The board is evenly balanced with 9 female leaders. In addition, more than 40 CEOs of Schneider Electric corporations worked hard to strengthen the authority of female executives and employees by pledging to strengthen women’s power as developed by the UN Women’s Organization and the UN Global Compact. The leaders who signed this pledge consisted of more than 90% of the entire group, demonstrating a progressive shift within the organization.

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This is the third blog in a four-part series on digital transformation in the chemical industry, check out the first blog “Chemical Companies Deliver Outstanding Customer Experiences Through Digital Transformation” and the second post “5 Benefits of Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing”.  Next week will be the finale of the series – predictive analytics in chemical manufacturing.

There’s been a lot of hype around technology buzzwords related to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0. And a lot of them hold a great deal of promise in delivering true digital transformation of traditional industry and business operations. Today, I hear continual chatter about augmented reality. And while I have seen a few highly produced (translate that as completely staged if you prefer) demos of so called digital twin and augmented reality technology, a lot of what’s being demonstrated today simply fails to deliver on the tangible value that customers need to see to justify investment in new technology. But I assure you, augmented reality is a technology worth investigation and investment. And there are commercially available off-the-shelf solutions that can be implemented almost immediately with little to no custom software development.

While fancy graphics, holographic 3D technology, and wind turbines that text you if they’re on fire may look flashy during pre-recorded demos for press and industry analysts, I fear some vendors may have simply missed the mark when it comes to actually helping their customers run their enterprise more efficiently and profitably. I think the overarching problem is that a lot of augmented reality technology was developed without understanding the use case. In other words, good business justifications do not come from the “cool factor”. Executives build good business justifications on dollars and cents return on investment. The sooner and less painfully the company realizes that return, the better.

So with that said, let’s take a step back and try to understand the real value proposition of augmented reality. I’ll address how and where it’s actually an applicable technology in manufacturing today. More specifically, let’s look at the chemical manufacturing industry. And as we do that let’s be sure to use a practical perspective as opposed to a theoretical approach.

Read our whitepaper to discover how augmented reality can help chemical manufacturers develop more agile business models

Building Augmented Reality on Mobile Technology

Asking users to completely modify the operational tasks they’re familiar with overnight is a recipe for failed technology adoption. A key role of technology in the modern, and increasingly millennial workforce is to serve up useful information from many sources into an experience that workers are comfortable with. No matter their generation, workers should be empowered with technology that serves up content in a way that enables them to make the right decision without necessarily having 30 years of experience to validate their decision

A more fruitful approach to adopting new technology is to start with a foundational technology that people already understand. For example, what about using mobile technology that people already use in their daily routine as a basis for augmented reality?

Rather than trying to transition users and operators to an entirely new way of performing their job duties through augmented reality goggles, start small. Begin by enabling operators in chemical manufacturing plants to perform maintenance rounds using mobile technology, like smartphones and tablets.

Augmented Reality in Chemical Manufacturing

This immediately delivers value in traditional chemical manufacturing applications including:

• Capturing key operational data in digital form to immediately give the entire organization real-time operations visibility.
• Driving enterprise wide KPI management by providing all functional units with complete manufacturing situational awareness.
• Reducing the risk of error prone data entry.
• Accelerating how quickly operators conduct rounds by providing maintenance personnel with historic trend values directly on their mobile device.
• Automating task management through digital workflows to accelerate operator rounds while creating a digital audit trail for regulatory compliance.
• Creating a central digital repository of information for knowledge capture and accelerating new hire training.
• Providing maintenance technicians with the capability of capturing pictures and videos of assets during normal and abnormal operation.
• Enabling real time collaboration between reliability and maintenance engineers and operators performing maintenance rounds to increase asset uptime.
• Connecting stranded assets stuck in an analog world to the world of digital processing, predictive analytics and machine learning.

See the benefits chemical manufacturers can achieve using augmented reality in our digital transformation infographic

These are just a few of the value propositions augmented reality through mobile workforce enablement can immediately deliver. This helps justify the business case for new technology adoption. Sometimes it is as simple as block and tackle common sense problem solving.

To learn more about some of the trends taking place in industrial manufacturing and digital transformation including the journey from mobile operator rounds to full blown augmented reality, check out our digital transformation whitepaper and infographic.

The post Augmented Reality in the Chemical Industry appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

At the center of electric utilities’ mission comes a very straightforward mandate: manage risk to minimize, observe, and reduce the effect of negative events and take advantage of opportunities. Minimizing threats to power network reliability and preventing expensive production shutdowns caused by outages are at the core of utilities’ and other power distribution networks’ risk management plans. Doing so requires electrical network operators to pinpoint the most likely sources of equipment failure in order to manage and minimize risks to substation equipment. This can be accomplished by using improved design engineering and technology modernization, calculated and strategic maintenance plans, and appropriate levels of service.

Deploying sensors gives utilities visibility throughout their substations and allows them to detect problems and communicate information. The sensors identify the real-time state and condition of electrical distribution equipment for effective grid management and increased operational efficiency and reliability. Sensors are highly concentrated in the areas where there is a higher likelihood of problems occurring, such as within substations. These sensors measure and transmit data that, with the help of analytics, can be translated into actionable insights. The frequency of data acquisition and accuracy must be connected to the speed of the phenomenon’s change, and this varies depending on what is being measured. For example, humidity sensors sample every five minutes while protection relays sample 10 to 1000 times faster than the phenomena they measure.

The response to distribution network events depends primarily on two factors: the type of event and the severity of the consequences. For example, sensors, decision processes, and actuators may be bundled together for a fast reaction and reduced communication errors in a high-criticality, high impact, and unanticipated phenomenon, like arc flash protection. In contrast, with a slower phenomenon with little immediate impact, such as an unexpected rise in energy use, utilities have more time to remotely analyze the situation using smart technology before responding.

The electrical equipment in smart substations and distribution management systems often has built-in mechanisms to heal and repair operations in case of one of these events. However, although some electrical distribution equipment may have the ability to self-heal, distribution network operators must still design a strategic maintenance plan to ensure optimal operations.

And in some cases, maintenance alone isn’t a viable option and operators must upgrade, modernize, or replace equipment. This gives them the opportunity to improve equipment connectivity and introduce new sensing technologies. Equipment assessment allows operators to identify weaknesses, inefficiencies, areas for cost savings, and ways in which equipment enhancements and modernization can make a positive impact on the entire network.

A degree of substation engineering inspiration can be taken from the way our own human biological systems work. Learn how utilities can lower substation shut-down risk in our new white paper: How to Build Smarter Electrical Substations by Mimicking Biology.

 

 

The post How can electric utilities minimize the chance of substation shutdown? appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

This blog was adapted from a recent article in WhereWomenWork.

Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation has featured among the 104 companies included in the 2018 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. This fantastic news reinforces the company’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and its longstanding efforts to promote gender equality.

Olivier Blum, Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President at Schneider Electric, commented: “Our diversity and inclusion philosophy aims to provide equal opportunities to everyone everywhere, and ensure that all our employees feel uniquely valued and safe to contribute their best. The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index gives us an opportunity to be evaluated among the best performers, while serving as a barometer for our efforts as a gender-equal employer. Our inclusion in the index strengthens our resolve to create an inclusive culture where all forms of diversity are valued.”

Promoting market transparency and raising awareness on gender issues

Originally limited to the financial services industry when launched in 2016, the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index was opened to companies from any sector, providing that they had a market capitalization of U.S.$1 billion or greater and at least one security trading on a U.S. stock exchange. The aim is to provide managers and investors with comparative information on gender-equality performance, while encouraging corporate disclosure, providing greater market transparency and raising awareness of gender issues.

“Schneider-Electric and the other 103 companies included in the 2018 GEI for their efforts to create work environments that support gender equality across a diverse range of industries,” said Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club. “Their leadership sets an important example that will help all organizations innovate and navigate the growing demand for diverse and inclusive workplaces”.

Schneider Electric prioritises gender equality

Achieving best-in class scores based on concrete achivements and scoring high on criteria involving top management commitment, community engagement, practices and policies, Schneider Electric’s results reflect the company’s numerous initiatives to drive positive change and ensure progress is monitored.

For example STEM initiatives, female-friendly graduate programmes, un-conscious bias training, a commitment to women in leadership, a brand new Global Family Leave Policy, Women’s Empowerment Principles and the UN’s HeForShe campaign (watch the video of Mr Tricoire describing what being a 10x10x10 Champion means) have all contributed to this fantastic recognition.

In addition to these, gender pay equity is among the 16 key indicators included in Schneider Electric’s quarterly “Planet & Society” sustainable development barometer, and in 2017, the company achieved its goal of 85% of employees working in countries covered by a gender pay equity process.

According to Olivier Blum, “Workplace gender equality is paramount, not only as the fair and the right thing to do, but because it is paramount to helping individuals achieve their full potential, develop their skills and reach high levels of productivity. Gender equality is achieved when people can access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of gender. Part of our social DNA at Schneider Electric is recognizing and valuing differences.”

The post Bloomberg Recognises Schneider Electric’s Commitment to Diversity appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

Written by Guest Blogger, Allen Lee

“What motivates you to work for this company?”

I am frequently asked this question by new graduates at career fairs, and I think that it is a good topic to write about. As a millennial who has worked at Schneider Electric for 6 years, I’ll summarize my observations with 3 strategic reasons.

1. Winning Investment Strategy

First, let’s compare career decisions with investment decisions. In both cases, we invest our capital, be that our time or money, with the goal of a positive return over time, whether career growth or financial gain. So… what is the winning investment strategy when choosing a company to work for?

Would you invest your time in the same company you’d invest your money? For young professionals seeking upward mobility, it makes sense to join a company that generates sustainable growth. This allows an employee to focus on delivering performance without worrying about the company’s future. A company with a winning investment strategy takes advantage of the market upside and protects itself from the downside of the market.

Schneider Electric is a great fit considering investment strategy. Founded in 1836, Schneider’s core business—Energy Management & Automation— solves the world’s increasing challenges in sustainable development. Additionally, the company’s unique business portfolio protects itself from being easily copied by competitors.

2. Personal Development Strategy

When it comes to personal development for Millennials, I see my friends’ enthusiasm about personal growth and learning. I have friends acquiring new skills like programming, gaining certifications like their CPA, and pursuing advanced degrees, like an MBA. From where I stand, in addition to formal education and training, the biggest personal development potential lies in the workplace. If you work 8 hours per day, you will work almost 2,000 hours per year. How do we choose a company to develop important competencies, regardless of job function or industry?

I recommend you choose a company that deals with complex concepts, because in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) & internet of things (IoT), it is inevitable that some traditional jobs will be replaced by machines. However, if handling complexity is a part of your daily work routine, it will naturally equip you with at least two transferable skills to land your next position—to learn quickly and to simplify.

Schneider Electric is a perfect fit considering a personal development strategy. Schneider operates the most complex business portfolio that I have ever heard of in the industrial business. To support every employee to achieve his or her goals under this complexity, Schneider Electric has created an organizational culture that strongly supports learning and simplification. For example, the company’s training system welcomes people from different backgrounds such as business or engineering to take the same role like offer marketer. Over the years, I have found that these two skills have become increasingly valuable. These skills are the keys to our fast-changing world.

3. Work-Life Balance Strategy

Lastly, let’s talk about how work-life balance may influence your career choices. I won’t consider “balance” as the complete separation between personal and professional life, because the always-on work culture has become a reality in today’s business environment. At different life stages, some people may work longer hours with the ambition of faster promotion and pay raise, while others may need more time to devote to their private lives. Therefore, I prefer to define work-life balance as getting work done with the most flexibility.

What criteria should we use to choose a company for work-life balance? Let’s consider these two questions:

1. Digital Tools: Does this company invest in digital tools for its employees to complete their tasks seamlessly in the office, at home or on the road?
2. Culture & Policy: Does this company support its employees to have flexible work options, with policies that support this?

For Schneider Electric, the answer is yes to both questions. For example, I can easily complete most of my tasks with mobile devices and apps when traveling (e.g. attending a conference or customer visit). In addition, the company has launched various policies addressing employees’ well-being, diversity & inclusion and flexibility at work, such as flexible working hours, work from home and the Global Family Leave policy. This shows the company’s commitment to attract and retain individuals who seek out work-life balance.

This is important to me as an employee because flexibility leads to creativity and productivity. Many brilliant ideas are created away from the office. With flexible working options, I can make the most of my energy to achieve more.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, a good strategy helps you find a company where you can build your career with sustainable growth and happiness. I hope this article is helpful for you to make better career decisions. What is your strategy?

About the Author

Allen Lee is a Business Development Manager at Schneider Electric in Taiwan. Since joining Schneider Electric in 2011, he has held several positions ranging in Offer Marketing, Channel Sales to Business Development. Allen is passionate about driving changes to grow the business, building cross-functional teams to deliver performance, and finding the right talent for his organization. Allen has a background in engineering and investment banking. Aside from work, he is interested in studying traditional Chinese medicine.

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The post 3 Strategic Reasons for Millennials to Work at Schneider Electric appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

• Recent survey of 236 companies shows that organizations feel ready to compete in the evolving energy landscape; but action doesn’t match perception
• Lack of integrated energy and sustainability planning and execution, and data management create barriers

Schneider Electric partnered with Greenbiz to complete a study on the current state on corporate energy and sustainability programs. The research report reveals that most organizations feel prepared for a decentralized, decarbonized and digitized future, but many are not taking the necessary steps to integrate and advance their energy and sustainability programs.

This false sense of security can be attributed to the finding that most companies still take fairly conventional approaches to energy management and climate action. And the gaps in innovation are further complicated by limited coordination between procurement, operations and sustainability departments, as well as inefficient data collection and sharing.

81% of companies have made efficiency upgrades or plan to, but 30% or less are considering new energy opportunities such as microgrids and demand response

According to the survey of almost 240 large corporations ($100 million in revenue or more) from around the globe, 85 percent of respondents said their company is taking action over the next three years to keep its carbon-reduction plans competitive with industry leaders. But the projects that have been initiated or are in development skew heavily toward energy, water and waste conservation. Outside of renewables, few of the organizations represented are implementing more advanced strategies and technologies to manage energy and emissions.

Key findings include:

• Eighty-one percent of respondents have made energy efficiency upgrades or plan to within the next two years; 75 percent are working to reduce water consumption and waste.
• Fifty-one percent have completed or are planning to pursue renewable energy projects.
• Just 30 percent have implemented or are actively planning to use energy storage, microgrids or combined heat and power — or some mix of the technologies.
• Only 23 percent have demand response strategies or plan to in the near term.

“We are in the middle of a massive disruption in the way energy is consumed and produced,” said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO at Schneider Electric. “The near-universal focus on conservation is a positive. However, being a savvy consumer is only a part of what’s needed to survive and thrive.”

“Companies need to prepare to be an active energy participant, putting the pieces in place to produce energy, and interact with the grid, utilities, peers and other new entrants. Those that fail to act will be left behind.”

A primary barrier to progress may be internal alignment. Sixty-one percent of respondents said their organization’s energy and sustainability decisions are not well coordinated across relevant teams and departments, particularly true for consumer goods and industrial businesses. In addition, the same number of respondents said lack of collaboration is a challenge.

Data management was cited as another obstacle for integrated energy and carbon management, with 45 percent of respondents stating that organizational data is highly decentralized, handled at local or regional levels. And of the people who identified “insufficient tools/metrics for data sharing and project evaluation” as a challenge for working across departments, 65 percent manage data at the local, regional or national — not global — level.

Managed cloud services leader iomart is an example of a company that’s taking an integrated, data-oriented approach. It works to coordinate energy efficiency and environmental management across the network of data centers it owns and operates in the U.K.

“Having data and actionable intelligence is essential,” said Neil Johnston, Group Technical Operations Director for iomart. “But what happens once the information is in hand is equally important.”

“Our procurement, energy and sustainability teams compare data, and develop shared strategies to manage consumption and emissions, and cut costs. That collaboration has delivered significant savings for the business, and helped us achieve ISO 50001 accreditation and meet Carbon Reduction Commitment requirements.”

The research points to progress in several areas as well

More than 50 percent of companies represented have initiated renewable energy projects or plan to do so within the next two years, with healthcare (64 percent) and consumer goods (58 percent) leading the way. Plus, the C-suite and corporate functions have a high degree of involvement in these and other sustainability-focused programs. Seventy-four percent said C-suite members review or approve renewables and sustainability initiatives, for instance, indicating this work is seen as a strategic priority.

And while ROI is the obvious benchmark for energy and sustainability initiatives, companies are starting to take a longer, more comprehensive view of investments. For example, more than half of the respondents said environmental impact is factored in to the evaluation process. Organizational risk (39 percent) is another important consideration.

The study was conducted by GreenBiz Research to identify how businesses develop energy and environmental strategies, collect and share data, and coordinate across departments — a practice known as Active Energy Management. Participants included professionals responsible for energy and sustainability management, from C-suite and board members to individual contributors. Companies surveyed represent 11 primary segments, including consumer goods, energy/utilities, finance, industrial, healthcare and technology. Results of any sample are subject to variation.

Read the full research report for a detailed summary of the survey and results.

The post New Research Reveals Companies Unprepared for New Energy Economy appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog.

For the better part of a century, engineers applied real-time control to improve the efficiency of industrial operations. As industrial equipment and processes became more and more complex, controlling efficiency was essential. Today, although controlling efficiency is necessary, by itself it’s insufficient for the ever-increasing business demands of industrial businesses.

The primary overall measures of the impact of improved efficiency are increased process throughout, with reduced energy consumption and reduced material consumption. The goal was to maximize throughput while simultaneously reducing energy and material consumption. Two decades ago, determining the business impact of improved efficiency was a relatively simple task. Since the costs of energy, material, and the value of the products produced were relatively stable over long periods, determining value was as simple as determining the total quantities of each and multiplying by the fixed values of each. Improvements in efficiency essentially directly translated to improvements in operational profitability.

Over the last two decades, this has changed dramatically. Where the price of energy, materials and products had been relatively stable for long periods, today they tend to change in very short time periods. For example, with the deregulation of electric power grids the pricing dynamics of the electric power industry increased to the point at which the price of electricity in the U.S can change every 15 minutes. This is also true for other energy sources, such as natural gas, the price of which can also change every 15 minutes. The dynamics of raw material pricing has also increased over the last twenty years. For example, the price of base metals can change multiple times every minute. The same effect is starting to cause faster fluctuations in product pricing and with web-based outlets such as Amazon and direct business-to-business interactions; this is going to increase.

The result of this dynamic shift is that it is much more challenging to convert efficiency improvements into financial terms. Today, the operational profitability of an industrial operation is almost as dynamic as the efficiency of the processes. Trying to manage operational profitability monthly no longer works the way it had. Operational profitability is a real-time control problem that needs handling in a very similar manner to process control.

Controlling operational profitability and efficiency requires interdependent control strategies. In fact, what is required is a cascade control strategy in which profitability control is cascaded to efficiency-based process control. The outputs of the profitability controllers provide the set points to the efficiency-focused process controllers.

The combined control strategy is referred to as profitable efficiency and is what industry requires to continually maximize both operational efficiency and operational profitability.

Learn more with your FREE White Paper  “Profitable Efficiency–the new DNA of Process Control”

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