In a bid to strengthen its commitment towards efficient, sustainable, and reliable energy, Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, made available its digital architecture, EcoStruxureTM Grid in Jaipur. The platform utilises disruptive technology to generate higher efficiency within utilities. The architecture is an open IoT-enabled framework for digital transformation of distribution utilities. EcoStruxureTM leverages the IT/OT convergence, thereby ensuring higher efficiency in grid operations, enabling overall digital transformation and optimal asset management.

 

Prakash Chandrakar, Vice President, Energy Business, Schneider Electric India, said, “The challenges related to power in India mostly come from its distribution. These can be addressed through digitisation, which offers tremendous opportunities for improving the quality and efficiency of power distribution. The EcoStruxure for grid drives greater energy and process optimisation by leveraging IoT and cloud capabilities combined with automation, software and analytics, leading to optimal efficiency from power discoms. This makes the energy value chain more intelligent. At Schneider Electric, our endeavor is to make a meaningful contribution towards the state government’s mission of achieving uninterrupted and quality power supply.”

 

Owing to rapid urbanisation, the state of Rajasthan has witnessed a quantum jump in demand for power from various segments of the society. Speaking at occassion, Sanjay Malhotra, Energy Secretary, Chairman and MD of Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd, stated, “The demands of the government and that of the consumer from us [PSEC Energy] should be no different, the perceptions or tangible outcomes, however, may vary. Our objective is to provide reliable 24x7 good quality and cost-effective power to each and every consumer. Moreover, reducing process time and cost for discoms are also our primary goals.”

 

Schneider Electric is currently working with various state discoms to provide digital technologies for the grid. Last year, the company commissioned a SCADA-DMS project for the Bihar Power Distribution Company that helped the state utility reduce its overall costs by curbing power theft and losses, reduce unscheduled downtimes, improve customer usage mapping, detecting faults at a faster pace, and gaining capabilities to scale up to meet increasing power demand.

 

Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure TM architecture and platform enables the ability to create an interoperable and open platform that is IoT enabled. It enables assets across the grid to be managed proactively. This means that companies will be able to achieve improved efficiency and cost optimisation. Data will be accessible in real time, enabling the ability to resolve critical issues and increase customer satisfaction by proactively managing issues that arise across the grid.

 

According to a white paper released by Schneider Electric on the need for digitisation in the power sector in association with IDC, IoT, analytics and cloud capabilities are important elements for utilities seeking to monitor and control equipment across the network of assets and to manage their grid environment. IDC’s research shows that amongst Indian utilities organisations, cloud platforms for data management, IoT and utilisation of data within 3D visualisations are particular priorities for organisations looking at new areas of technology investment. The research outlines the focus that Indian utilities have placed on operational efficiency to improve their financial position, with improving efficiencies and reducing costs figuring as their top two priorities in the next 12-18 months. Manual distribution processes, insufficient infrastructure, and lack of real-time information are some of the other challenges that are in turn resulting in delayed revenue realisation, poor operating efficiency, and high operating costs, the study revealed.

 

According to the IDC survey, 64% of Indian utility companies cited the digitising of manual or paper processes as one of the biggest drivers for people, process and technology transformation within their organisations. Organisational flexibility and agility is also an issue, with 68% of respondents stating their desire to create a more agile organisation as the top driver behind their IT investments.