By Ikenna Omeje
In its commitment to helping its customers adapt to the new normal and gear towards energy transition, French energy management giant, Schneider Electric, has introduced three innovative solutions that will improve energy efficiency and sustainability for its customers and partners.
The new digital solutions, which were introduced to about 2,000 customers and partners on Wednesday, at its virtual Innovation Summit Middle East and Africa 2020, were connected breakers, along with building and machine advisors to enable predictive maintenance on equipment through remote monitoring.
In his keynote address, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Schneider Electric, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, said that digitization brings far greater efficiency at lower cost in energy use, as the world adapts to the new normal occasioned by Covid-19 global pandemic and moves towards energy transition.
Tricoire noted the disruption digital has caused in the way people live their lives and with their environment, adding that it can enable people to bridge progress and sustainability.
He said: “As we are adapting to the new normal and learning new ways to live, we all see that digitizing is the solution to accelerate. It makes remote and collaborative operations possible and strengthens resiliency by allowing us to better understand, anticipate and adapt with agility. It brings a far greater efficiency, at a much lower cost and with a much faster implementation in energy use and operational process, and enables a step change in sustainability with everything we do. Digital has disrupted the way we live together. It is now disrupting the way we live with our environment and can enable us bridge progress and sustainability for all.”
Focusing on how big industry including grid, oil and gas, and transportation can approach the New Electric World while still meeting business goals, and what they can do today, the Executive VP, Power Systems and Services, Frederic Godemel said: “As caretakers of the planet, we’re on the wrong path. But all is not lost. It’s still possible to reverse the trend. The New Electric World describes a set of criteria we must achieve: decarbonizing demand and generation, and improving energy efficiency. “
Also speaking, the President, Middle East and Africa for Schneider Electric, Caspar Herzberg said that “2020 has underlined the need for industry to move faster. Digitization is the way forward for business continuity. The skills and technologies exist – it is for us, today, to accelerate that shift, and be prepared to work with a new mindset where we make the most of everything digital to support our physical operations.”
Earlier in her welcome address, the VP Marketing at Schneider Electric, Firdaus Shariff, said that with rapid changes taking place in the world, companies need to respond quickly and responsibly.
She said: “With the world changing at an exceptional pace, companies today must respond quickly and responsibly. I am a firm believer that with every crisis comes the opportunity of innovation. After years of meeting in person with customers and partners around the world, we at Schneider Electric are taking digital commitment to the next level. We have been able to engage with 300,000 customers and partners through digital event in the first half of 2020. And we are just getting started. Today we have an audience of 1000 people connected from more than 30 countries.”