Since Schneider Electric participated in iAgua’s Smart Water magazine of 2017, many things have happened in the company. At the end of 2017, Schneider Electric launched a suite of managed services hosted in the cloud within the EcoStruxure platform, with innovative industrial applications in the water sector:
- EcoStruxure Augmented Operator Advisor, which offers field operators, using augmented reality technology, digital information and an instant diagnosis for maintenance on their mobile devices without the need to touch the equipment. This solution helps to reduce inspection and repair times, human errors, improves the training of field personnel and the prevention of occupational risks.
- EcoStruxure Asset Advisor, an advanced monitoring service that translates key data from critical water and sanitation assets into actionable knowledge, in order to mitigate the risk of electrical failure. The application offers simple dashboards and advanced web analysis, notifications, workable work orders and a dedicated advisory service by experts with optimization recommendations.
- EcoStruxure Maintenance Advisor, a predictive maintenance tool for plants and networks that ensures a 100% return on investment in the first three months. It is the smart choice to improve operational efficiency, with a single maintenance + mobility IIoT platform, for the generation of alerts, corrective recommendations and proactive actions thanks to Workflow software integrated with ERP.
In 2017, we partnered with the following companies to work together in the digitization of our offer and closing the IT / OT gap:
- Microsoft, whose Azure cloud infrastructure hosts all of our digital offerings.
- Accenture, with whom we develop Digital Services Factory, a "virtual" factory that streamlines the construction of new offers.
- IBM and Capgemini, partners in specific final markets and key projects.
- Cisco, McAfee, Intel, Thales, Symantec and others, allies in the field of cybersecurity.
In terms of mergers and acquisitions, Schneider Electric and AVEVA finalized in March 2018 the merger of their software businesses to create a global leader in industrial and engineering software valued at more than £ 3 billion, which operates as an independent company listed on the London Stock Exchange. With its 60% share of AVEVA, Schneider Electric has a comprehensive asset lifecycle management solution, from design and engineering (AVEVA) to operation and maintenance (Schneider), which is key to the water business.
In absolute results, this last year has been fantastic for Schneider Electric, which has obtained a growth of 23% compared to 2016, of 16% in the first half of the year compared to the same period of 2017, and with important contracts finalized or awarded in the Smart Water field, among which are:
- The implementation of energy efficiency performance contracts in 4 US cities to save $1 million / year, as well as new contracts in Atlanta, La Porte and El Centro worth more than $42 million.
- The deployment in Italy of an integrated simulation, remote control, leakage management and operation optimization system for Acqua Novara, which manages the supply to 500,000 inhabitants. In April 2018, we won two new contracts for Padania Acque (which serves 400,000 inhabitants), for remote control and leakage management of their water network, and for IoT integration in a consortium with Veolia, respectively.
- At the end of 2017, we signed a Smart City contract in India for the new city of Naya Raipur, which includes applications to control non-revenue water, optimize operations and assets. In June 2018, we have won another Smart City contract in Dholera, where we will implement our SCADA technology, telecontrol, real-time hydraulic simulation, asset management and maintenance.
Throughout 2018, we are seeing a greater acceptance by customers of Smart Water technology and a cultural change that encourages us as we are facing the awakening of the digital age in the water industry. It was time!
