Host of digital and people-centric solutions launched at flagship annual customer and partner event series CEO keynote lays out how adopting existing technologies at scale will help bolster energy security, resilience and decarbonization Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today kicked off its Innovation Summit World Tour 2022 with a passionate call to address the triple crisis – energy, economic and climate – facing governments, businesses and consumers around the globe, and setting out its approach and solutions as to how to do this. “In a time of global crisis, we must have complete clarity on our journey and destination. The current energy crisis is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric. “With energy demand globally anticipated to grow three-fold in the next 30 years, it’s vital that we deploy all the technologies that are already available now to accelerate electrification, digitization, and sustainability.”  Mr Tricoire was speaking at the start of what is Schneider Electric’s flagship annual customer event series in October and November, during which the company will unveil numerous innovative new product, software and service offerings that address the pressing environmental and social issues arising from the energy crisis and climate change. His comments come hot on the heels of Climate Week NYC, where Schneider Electric’s Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Gwenaelle Avice-Huet, called for more attention to be paid to the often still underestimated demand-side of energy crisis — in other words, how much energy is consumed in the first place. The company’s Schneider Electric Research Institute  team issued a first of its kind quantitative study demonstrating the potential of available technologies, which, if combined and deployed at scale has the potential to lower carbon emissions by two-thirds by 2030, while generating massive savings on energy spend for building dwellers (up to 70%). Schneider has long advocated for urgent, concerted action to reduce energy waste, invest in renewables, electrify and digitalize energy ecosystems, and ensure that all this is done with economic and people welfare in mind. The company is widely recognized as a leader on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and its products, services and other activities help customers, suppliers, business partners and communities further their own progress on those fronts. Schneider will announce a raft of innovations at its Innovation Summit World Tour. Full details of the news from the Energy Management division can be found here  and innovations in the Industrial Automation space can be found here. Following local events in Middle East and Africa, Singapore, China and Belgium, the Innovation Summit World Tour   commences on October 12th with a global keynote address and press conference, and then moves on to: USA (Las Vegas) – 12th -13th October UK & Ireland (London, Coventry, Leeds, Galway) – 20th October Argentina –  25th – 26th October Indonesia (Jakarta) – 2nd -3rd November Hong Kong – 8th November With sustainability at its core, and to celebrate and champion initiatives around the world, Schneider also announced its Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact Awards, designed to recognize the critical role customers and suppliers play in delivering a more resilient and sustainable world. Understanding that our successful partners and suppliers will set the precedent for others to follow in their footsteps, the program hopes to deliver significant impact through considered sustainable and efficient practices. Nominations are now open, and the deadline for submissions is November 25.

Partnership between Siemens Digital Industries and Smart Infrastructure help Congleton plant achieve carbon neutral target Siemens’ Congleton factory is on track to achieve carbon neutrality this year – eight years ahead of its original target. The operation, which manufactures more than 1.2m controls and drives each year, is inching its way to the major milestone after deploying a range of sustainable solutions for energy generation and demand with support from Siemens’ energy and performance services business, Smart Infrastructure. These include generating 75kw of renewable energy through a hydro-electric plant at Havannah Weir on the river Dane and using carbon neutral, certified biogas to power its on-site gas engine. These measures alone saved over £250,000 pounds a year and took the 80% power-independent factory off the grid. Beyond these innovations, Siemens Congleton adopted a building management system which automatically adjusts to drive energy efficiency improvements, while modern windows and LED lighting have reduced the total energy bill by 13% and 30% respectively. Combined with reducing waste to landfill to zero and EV charging for staff and visitors, the Cheshire site is eight years ahead of Siemens’ original 2015 commitment to ensure carbon neutral operations by 2030. Commenting on the achievement, Andrew Peters, Managing Director of Siemens Digital Industries Congleton, said: “Siemens believes that sustainability is a force for good and can deliver value for all its stakeholders. We want to help customers achieve sustainable growth and to transform their industries through decarbonisation. The first step of that is for us to achieve these ambitions in our own operations. “I am delighted that by leveraging a culture of continuous improvement and sustainability – the vital components to Siemens’ Congleton’s long-term success – we have achieved carbon neutrality, a major milestone in our ambitions to reach net zero emissions by 2030.” The 50-year-old Siemens Congleton factory began its sustainability journey in 1990 when it began manufacturing drives to meet the demands of industry. In 2018 the factory became fully digital by embracing lean manufacturing methods to achieve continuous improvement and by adopting leading-edge Industry 4.0 processes. Using advanced manufacturing methods include Virtual Reality, Digital Twin, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Advanced Robotics, Cloud Technology and Additive Manufacturing, it has mastered producing up to 50,000 variations of its products to fulfil the shifting demands of its customers and markets, increased productivity by driving down costs, and improved efficiency. In 1990, 400 workers made 50,000 variable speed drives and controls a year. Today, a similar number of workers produce 1.2 million electrical devices – including 600,000 variable speed drives (VSDs). What is more is that it has been achieved within the same physical footprint. The factory is bounded by industrial units and housing estates, with no room to expand, meaning Congleton has one of the highest productivity rates per m2 of any Siemens’ sites. Faye Bowser, Head of Siemens’ Energy & Performance Services GB&I, said: “The climate emergency puts the demand on businesses of all sizes and sectors to really accelerate their efforts for decarbonisation. But a challenge is that often decarbonisation isn’t their core business. So, at Energy and Performance Services we make it our business to use our skills, our knowledge and our tools to help our customers transition to net zero in a way that contributes to their business priorities. “Despite us being from the Siemens family, we have approached working with Congleton the same we do with any organisation. It has been fantastic. In Andrew Peters you have a leader in a business which has put continuous improvement and sustainability at the heart of their long-term success. Our job was to apply those components to their energy system and their energy strategy. What we ended up with is an engineered roadmaps to net zero that considers timelines, finance, digital services, all there to safeguard business continuity, and to have a method to continuously identify more opportunities to reduce carbon on site.” The Congleton factory is leading the way for Siemens which has committed, as a global organisation, to ensure all its operations are carbon neutral by 2030 and for all production facilities and buildings to achieve net zero-carbon footprint by 2030. In the UK Siemens’ progress has been recognised by The Carbon Trust, an expert partner for supporting organisations to achieve science-based targets. In June it awarded Siemens its Route to Net Zero Standard tier one certification for ‘Taking Action’. Commenting on this milestone achievement, Olivia Whitlam, Head of Sustainability, Siemens Plc said: “Siemens is taking a holistic approach to achieving net zero and we are pleased to be guided by the Carbon Trust who helps us monitor our progress each year. “We have 8,600 people spread across offices and 11 manufacturing sites across the UK and we are creating innovation up and down the country with sustainability at the core of our operations and services. Our Congleton factory is paving the way for sustainability whilst setting a great example on how manufacturers can join this amazing journey to net zero.”

Building X is the first next generation offering designed and built as part of Siemens Xcelerator Modular, scalable, open smart building suite that seamlessly integrates building systems to eliminate complexity and enable net zero Facilitates co-creation with partners to address digitalization challenges faster Siemens Smart Infrastructure has launched Building X, a new smart building suite that is open, interoperable and fully cloud-based. The suite is the first next generation offering built on the design principles of Siemens Xcelerator, an open digital business platform launched today to accelerate digital transformation and value creation across industry, transportation, grids and buildings. Building X addresses the challenges of various stakeholders, including building users, property investors, real estate companies and facility managers. It acts as a single source of truth to eliminate complexity and supports net zero targets. Stakeholders can now digitize and use their building data from various sources, disciplines and systems on one single platform, Building X. This enables a seamless user experience and the integration of their existing software and ecosystem, including third party applications, through vendor agnostic connectivity and open application programming interfaces (APIs). The suite offers modular, AI-enabled applications, and built-in cyber security. It also facilitates co-creation with customers and partners to address their challenges faster, thanks to the openness and cloud technology, which means digital transformation can be achieved easier, faster and at scale. “Building X is the antidote to data silos. We can now connect all data that smart building systems generate in one single data lake, scaling up smart buildings faster and moving closer to our vision of autonomous, net zero buildings. Building X creates data-based outcomes for greater efficiency, performance and experience, changing for the better the way we work and live in buildings,” said Matthias Rebellius, managing board member of Siemens AG and CEO of Smart Infrastructure. “We look forward to co-creating use cases with our customers and partners on Building X to accelerate innovation and sustainability in the industry.” The Building X suite currently features a set of applications and digital services, tailored to different stakeholder groups, all connected on the AI-enabled platform. Building X opens new possibilities to digitalize, manage, and optimize building operations, bringing value to both existing buildings and new ones. Its applications cover key domains of building management, including energy, security and building operations, backed by strong analytics capabilities. The applications offer a consistent user experience, where relevant data is intelligently combined to drive outcomes for customers. A true digital building operations twin Building X combines the real and digital worlds of buildings by consolidating data from multiple sources into a digital building operations twin. With a virtual representation of a building, building operators can resolve issues faster. Users benefit from the transparency Building X provides in their efforts to make their buildings more sustainable, achieve better building performance and optimize user experience – all resulting in higher business outcomes. A growing set of applications The Building X applications are designed to be modular and persona-based, providing the right data to the right people. In addition to co-creation possibilities, users can choose from multiple ready-made applications. This makes the single “pane of glass” concept user and workflow-driven, while still allowing dashboards and data insights to be customized according to each user’s needs. As of now, the offering embraces four applications, with more to be added to the platform over time: The Energy Manager tracks energy consumption, costs and CO2 footprint of a building or building fleet and enables early corrective actions if necessary. It forecasts energy consumption based on historical data, and supports users in tracking their sustainability goals, helping them reach net zero buildings. The Operations Manager operates and monitors building equipment and applications in real-time. It can monitor a fleet of sites from one single point and ensures fast issue-response while reducing downtimes. Users benefit from increased business continuity and improved reaction times. The Security Manager operates and maintains security systems with unified and automated workflows. It centrally manages daily security operations and incidents across all systems. The 360° Viewer App represents a location as a virtual 3D environment, allowing for indoor navigation for insights into equipment topology and installation. SaaS and driving outcomes with building services Building X is offered as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, on a subscription basis. Thanks to the SaaS model, building stakeholders can access software off the shelf, ensuring they always have access to the latest functionality and find upgrades during the building lifecycle to meet their changing needs. Aside from the SaaS model, customers can also opt for an end-to-end program of Siemens Xcelerator Building Services, which will be enabled by Building X. This allows them to rely on Siemens to achieve their targets. In this model, Siemens leverages a combination of its technology, paired with the expertise of its digital building professionals. The programs are customized to achieve pre-defined outcomes, such as reducing operating and energy costs, optimizing asset performance for uptime and productivity, meeting regulatory requirements, or enhancing the occupant experience. Siemens Xcelerator is an open digital business platform comprising a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software, a growing partner ecosystem and evolving marketplace to accelerate digital transformation.