SPECIAL
FEATURE
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
DATA IS POWER
Shashwat Khare, smart electrical distribution business manager at Schneider Electric,
explains why ‘smart’ matters in energy management.
T
he world of energy is
experiencing a paradigm
shift as the demand
for decarbonisation,
decentralisation and
digitisation rockets.
A huge uptake in
renewable and distributed
generation means that our power supply
has never been more complex at a time
when our need for energy has never been
greater. Yet digitisation, the massive growth
in the sharing of data across industry and
society, holds the key that will enable us to
manage our energy needs.
In this a new environment, businesses
too must learn to manage their power.
This is necessary, not simply to keep the
lights on but to stay competitive in a rapidly
changing world. Uptime is critical and at
many large facilities power outages can be
crippling, costing over £1 million a day while
endangering the lives of their occupants.
66 | November2017
In addition, operations and
maintenance costs can represent as much
as 80% of the total lifecycle of a building’s
operation over a 50-year period. This
stems from the need for regular check-
ups over the course of the life of the
building’s equipment. Yet this ultimately
results in equipment being checked
regardless of its status, where faults are
often discovered too late and must be
repaired, at great cost and disruption.
Against this backdrop, building
and facilities managers are under
great pressure to cut energy costs
whilst growing revenues. The logical
course is to limit downtime and the cost
of repairs by ensuring a more efficient,
reliable supply of power and by improving
monitoring practices. Many have struggled
to achieve this, but the application of
the right strategy and technology can be
transformative. Companies can take the
opportunities presented by digitisation
through switching to a more connected,
active energy management.
However, to do this companies must
first obtain information on their processes
and energy usage. The easiest way to do
this is through access to the data generated
by connected equipment attached to these
operations. Yet it is not enough to merely
have the data, an organisation must have a
Analysing data from
smart devices can
be key to effective
connected energy
management