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Electricity and the Internet have transformed our lives in the past two decades. Any disruption in electricity or Internet connectivity impacts us greatly – almost bringing our lives to a halt. The COVID 19 pandemic has further shown how critical creating an all-electric and connected life is around the world.
Globally, critical infrastructure and industrial and commercial buildings require reliable “always-on” electrical power. However, to make “always-on” electrical power a reality, it is essential to address the fundamentals of electrical power distribution. At our 2020 Innovation Summit World Tour, we explored what these fundamentals mean to foster a New Electric World.
Meeting changing customer demands
Listening to the challenges and perspectives of our extensive customer community is crucial to understanding how to best meet their changing needs. For example, many of our partners have identified the shifting preference towards the adoption of digital technologies for building environments, the need to keep these digital solutions affordable, and the growing complexity of sophisticated buildings as the three biggest emerging market trends.
These types of trends are being driven by sustainability, efficiency, and cost-effective business objectives. Clients and partners are now demanding smart building solutions and operative models that can help ensure energy and operational efficiency, as well as meet sustainability objectives.
Evolving power expectations for sustainable business growth
For businesses, avoiding power problems is of paramount importance instead of retrospectively dealing with their consequences. The downtime cost, particularly in critical projects such as data centers, offices with trading floors, and hospitals, can exceed the incremental cost of adding intelligent devices at the commencement of a project.
As David Mills, Associate Principal at Arup, noted during the session, “Data is the king [and] knowledge is power.” Clients now expect real-time information access from anywhere and from any device. Further, they are now expecting this data and information to be a part of today’s electrical installations. Relevant and real-time information helps a company understand the functioning of the system and make better-informed choices while managing its infrastructure.
Safety, prevention, and minimizing risks in installations are also critical to our clients. With high connectivity, there is a concern that the increased number of connected Internet of Things devices can lead to significant cybersecurity issues. Hence, cybersecurity is vital and so is the confidence in the devices and companies behind them.
The five key power fundamentals to avoid business disruption and loss
Avoiding disruption and potential business losses have become much more important to businesses. Therefore, our customers and partners are looking for innovative solutions with the five key fundamentals:
- Safety
- Availability of power
- Energy efficiency
- Connectivity
- Cybersecurity
About 25% of all electrical fires are due to faulty or loose connections. Also, power outages cause a loss of US$110 billion and €150 Billion to US and EU economies, respectively. Therefore, the world economies need safe and “always-on” power system architectures, armed with surge protection mechanisms and technologies to help in fault localization, root cause analysis, and recovery.
Today, digitally-connected technologies can enhance safety and efficiency, making the system more cost-effective. They can help engineers to design, select, install, commission, and operate smart electrical distribution systems while supporting the selection of the right devices and enhance asset management.
Also, building efficiency is important to achieve active energy management and to establish a green and circular model. With the benefits of connectivity comes cybersecurity challenges. As per a Cisco report, 31% of organizations have experienced cyberattacks on operational technology infrastructure. Therefore, ensuring cybersecurity is essential for a safe and secure smart electric distribution system.
Programs and digitally-connected solutions to improve performance
Schneider Electric is constantly looking beyond the norm to provide innovative solutions. To empower various stakeholders and to unleash collective expertise. We have designed curated programs and digitally-connected power solutions to achieve efficiency and sustainability objectives.
For our partners, we offer a wide variety of programs customized to help them succeed such as our EcoXpert Partner Program which makes up a global ecosystem of cross-expertise. Trained and certified by Schneider Electric, nearly 4000 EcoXpert partners form the implementation arms of our EcoStruxure solutions across the world.
Our innovative fire prevention solutions, for example, address the fundamental values with the right solutions. Our PowerLogic HeatTag analyzes gas and particles in the switchboard and alerts long before any smoke or insulator browning occurs. Schneider Electric has launched a new generation of PrismaSeT Active, the first LV switchboard with built-in cloud connectivity, and ComPacT circuit breakers for operational excellence and simplified maintenance activities.
To learn more about the role of connectivity, the changing consumer demands, and behavioral patterns, and the collective efforts of Schneider Electric and its partners, please register for our on-demand discussion.
