Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the next phase in its Grids of the Future offerings at DISTRIBUTECH International® 2023, the leading annual transmission and distribution event for utilities, technology providers, and industry leaders.
North American utilities are facing significant disruption with a climate emergency, talent scarcity and energy crisis, further exacerbated by prosumer revolutions on the demand side. To provide guidance through this unprecedented change, Schneider Electric has expanded its Grid to Prosumer portfolio to help customers and utilities transform and digitalize their business across the energy value chain.
“Rather than a barrier, this inevitable new energy landscape presents an opportunity for utilities to transform their businesses by reimagining their existing business models, capturing infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding, and digitalizing the demand and supply sides,” said Gary Lawrence, Power and Grid Segment President at Schneider Electric. “We are proud to have a robust and continuously evolving portfolio to serve as a trusted partner in the journey toward Grids of the Future.”
Delivering the Broadest Spectrum of Solutions to Manage the Lifecycle of the Grid
Stepwise journeys for digital transformation: As utilities face complex grid, power generation, and energy transition challenges, rapid innovation with agile deployments helps utilities achieve near-term benefits while laying a foundation for bold long-term visions. Adopting a stepwise approach allows utilities to start small and scale over time by initially focusing on the most pressing customer needs and grid locations versus deploying solutions system-wide all at once. The Grid to Prosumer approach addresses distributed energy resource (DER) management needs across enterprise technology and business processes. An example stepwise journey for DER management starts with modeling and simulation, then incrementally advances to situational awareness, simplified optimization, advanced optimization and market integration.
First-of-its-kind home energy management solution: Schneider Electric has made additional investments in Grid to Prosumer with extended offerings that now include home energy management. Award winning Schneider Home provides homeowners with energy independence through an integrated home energy management solution – controlled by a single, easy-to-use app – that automates energy production, storage, measurement and control, making homes efficient, resilient and sustainable. With a multi-faceted approach guided by a foundation of digital transformation, utilities can integrate with Schneider Home to maximize grid flexibility, respond to changing prosumer priorities and optimize across market needs.
EcoStruxure™ Grid Operation deployable on Azure for outage management: Schneider’s Grid Operations Platform as a Service was built to address current and future challenges for grid operators, including small to medium utilities looking to modernize. Now EcoStruxure™ Grid Operation is available as a cloud deployable solution hosted on Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure. With this agile approach to outage management, grid operators can focus on core business strategies versus maintaining and updating IT infrastructure. This advancement is one of many examples that support Schneider Electric’s #1 ranking in the Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard for ADMS Vendors report.
AI-powered vegetation management for grid resilience: Schneider Electric also announces a new joint grid resilience offering with AiDash, which addresses modern day infrastructure and environmental challenges, such as aging power grids, decarbonization and distributed power generation, vegetation growth inside rights-of-way, and the impact of storms and wildfires. Now, utilities can leverage the latest in analytics to prevent power outages, predict future outcomes, and build climate resilience.
EcoStruxure™ Transformer Expert for asset maintenance and operations: Acknowledging the essential role transformers play in today’s energy landscape, Schneider Electric has launched EcoStruxure Transformer Expert, an easy-to-deploy monitoring solution for higher ROI. It includes IoT sensors and software analytics for oil transformers that can be leveraged for oil transformers of all ages, regardless of manufacturer. It helps maximize operations uptime and operational efficiency, reduce maintenance costs and extend lifetime by providing full visibility into health status and operations to drive data-driven decisions and optimization.
Substation control for secure operations: PowerLogic T500 offers a substation controller for distribution automation in a single, low-power-consuming device. Delivering advanced cybersecurity features to minimize business disruption while ensuring peace of mind with certified IEC 62443 SL2 compliance, it is easy to use throughout the product lifecycle and ensures a fully digital experience. Complete with an intuitive configuration tool and a flexible web-based user interface, PowerLogic T500 is integrated with EcoStruxure™ System Management, advanced data management software that helps reduce electrical faults and downtime by providing operators with the capability of performing maintenance on connected devices in diverse, multi-vendor environments.
Service plan portfolio for asset lifecycle management: Providing exclusive support to optimize operations, Schneider’s EcoCare membership offers depth expertise combined with innovative digital capabilities across the equipment lifecycle for decarbonization and electrification, while EcoConsult delivers consulting expertise and actionable insights for safety, resiliency, efficiency and sustainability. Finally, EcoFit minimizes waste to position your business for the future. Schneider is welcoming new EcoCare Members to enjoy the innovation service plan for low and medium-voltage equipment.
