Schneider Electric: How Electricity 4.0 can help achieve climate goals.
This content has been provided by Schneider Electric and is being published by NZME as advertorial.
By Jason Molloy, Schneider Electric, Secure Power Lead, New Zealand.
Many businesses in New Zealand are already on their sustainability and digitalisation journey. They are transforming their processes and systems to become digital, identifying this as essential to long-term success.
These leaders also recognise the benefits of sustainable assets – namely that they outperform other asset classes and deliver lower operating costs, are more resilient to energy price volatility, have greater occupant well-being, and offer a stronger brand image.
Supporting these businesses on their journey, Schneider Electric, a global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, says we are about to jump into a new electricity evolution.
Jason Molloy, Schneider Electric’s Secure Power lead in New Zealand, says that the convergence of digitalisation and electrification at scale, what Schneider Electric calls Electricity 4.0, is key to helping accelerate carbon emission reductions and achieve climate change goals.
“Electricity 4.0 is how Schneider Electric believes organisations can achieve their efficiency and sustainability goals from strategy to execution,” Molloy says. “Digital (for efficiency) + Electric (for decarbonisation) = Sustainable (green and smart energy).
“We deliver Electricity 4.0 with a unique integrated approach. It means we can be agile to increase the sustainability of products during the design phase, in operation, and at the end of life. With connected, electric devices, we maximise renewable energy usage and reduce our carbon emissions.”
Schneider Electric has been at the forefront of sustainability for some years now, empowering its customers to measure and monitor their energy use, and thereby identify and reduce unnecessary consumption.
“To achieve the carbon emission reductions we have committed to, we believe that cities around the world must work to make all new and existing buildings net-zero by 2030,” Molloy says.
“By making the invisible visible we can measure what we understand, and through the convergence of digitalisation and electrification, we are better able to track and reduce our energy usage.”
Digital transformation
A seismic shift in the behaviours of office workers during the pandemic has had a huge impact on the speed at which digital transformation has taken place.
“Where once it would have been unimaginable to run entire enterprises split across individual locations as people worked from home, employees have shown that this can be done, and done well,” says Molloy. “However, as many businesses and organisations were forced to pivot very quickly to digital systems, in some instances the move was not as strategic or well-planned as they would have liked.”
Taking partial digitalisation as a starting point, there is no right or wrong way to complete a digital transformation, he says, but businesses should be aware of where they are in their journey and the potential cybersecurity risks that come with it.
“For those who have digitised some systems – perhaps in a rushed and ad hoc way – a digital transformation offers increased cybersecurity. It is important to identify and eliminate any risks which might be present so that you can protect your business model and your customers’ information.”
A digital transformation provides businesses with:
- Access to data for analytics and business improvements
- Agility and the ability to pivot as the market demands
- A common digital thread across business functions for collaboration, engagement, reliability, and efficiency
- A customer-centred methodology
- Increased opportunity for sustainability and energy savings.
Hybrid architectures
To achieve a digital transformation many businesses will use a mix of digital technologies that include onsite data centres, cloud computing and Edge technology. The benefits of this hybrid model are that it offers efficiencies in cost, speed, and data protection.
For example, edge-assisted digital technologies allow businesses to store data closer to the place where it is created, giving them faster access to this information, which in turn offers a better experience for customers. Edge computing is becoming more sought after by businesses for reasons such as:
- Improved latency – high-performance applications require latency speeds of less than 7 milliseconds, which is generally only possible with edge solutions
- Bandwidth – it isn’t feasible to be constantly transferring massive amounts of data for collection and processing; this can be expensive and slow
- Autonomy – company tools and processes that can self-organise, auto-discover, react, and make decisions need to automatically access data quickly and frequently
- Interactivity – collaboration between employees and systems requires very responsive local processes that are only enabled with edge computing
- Privacy/security – often, personal, sensitive data must be kept on-premises to mitigate security risks and comply with regulations.
Achieving sustainability and environmental goals
With a history of solving challenges through innovation, New Zealand is positioning itself to tackle climate change and reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees. Electricity 4.0, digital transformation and edge technology are all tools that can help achieve sustainability and environmental goals.
Schneider Electric is successfully helping businesses and organisations leave behind their old ways and instead embrace customer-centric, data-driven analytics, and collaborative partnerships. To find out more, visit www.se.com/nz