Hannover Messe 2022 : Schneider Electric’s Latest Innovations

Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, announced this week version 22.0 of EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert, further enhancing the capabilities of the world’s first software-centric universal automation system.

Consumer-packaged goods, logistics, water and wastewater operations now have next-generation automation capabilities and unrivalled operational flexibility with EcoStruxure Automation Expert v22.0. including:

• expanded libraries for segment functions and energy management devices
• enhanced user experience (UX) in the build time tool
• fortified built-in cybersecurity
• support for additional engineering input formats, including DEXPI (ISO15926 based) and Excel
• Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish language support and enhanced documentation

Importantly, the solution also provides end to end digital continuity through close integration with AVEVA applications. EcoStruxure Automation Expert can connect to AVEVA Engineering and import plant design data for automated bulk engineering. It also enables scalable visualization for the enterprise control room by integration with AVEVA System Platform.

Decoupling automation software from hardware

EcoStruxure Automation Expert provides increased flexibility and control by enabling automation software to be separated from the hardware, providing freedom for all enterprises to break their dependency on proprietary industrial automation.

“EcoStruxure Automation Expert provides us with the digital thread through our operations that we need to become as efficient as possible,” said Quanjiang Wang, General Manager, Jingkelun. “By decoupling hardware and software, we can analyze, edit, or update systems effectively and provide our customers with the level of flexibility they need. EcoStruxure Automation Expert, with its open, vendor-agnostic approach, has changed the very nature of automation software.”

Beijing Jingkelun, the high-tech business specializing in the research, development, and construction of green intelligent cold chain storage, selected EcoStruxure Automation Expert to meet continuously fluctuating market challenges. The business wanted to react to market opportunities and changes in real-time while also decreasing commissioning and maintenance costs. They also wanted to leverage new technologies to advance service and capabilities and protect their installed base investments.

With EcoStruxure Automation Expert, Beijing Jingkelun achieved:

• 30% savings of commissioning time and ease of maintenance
• holistic system management of heterogeneous systems through orchestration
• locked access to function blocks source code
• efficient “wrap and reuse” of automation objects

Universal automation digital ecosystem

In addition to providing digital continuity and seamless integration with complementary software, EcoStruxure Automation Expert also enables different entities, whether internal or external, to work together to create the best solution to solve specific market challenges.

EcoStruxure Automation Expert is the world’s first universal automation solution and part of an ecosystem that works similarly to an app store for automation where vendors, end users, and OEMs share a common automation software layer across their technology. This technological collaboration is driving the development of portable, interoperable, “plug and produce” automation solutions that industrial enterprises can easily integrate regardless of brand.

Since its introduction in late 2020, EcoStruxure Automation Expert has received numerous recognitions and awards for innovation and product excellence. Most recently, EcoStruxure Automation Expert was the recipient of the 2022 Engineer’s Choice Award for Software: MES, MOM.

“Our customers continue to call EcoStruxure Automation Expert a ‘game changer’ for industrial automation engineering and operation,” said Fabrice Jadot, Senior Vice President, Next Generation Automation, Schneider Electric. “Industrial flexibility and sustainability have never been more important, given today’s highly volatile market. With EcoStruxure Automation Expert, our industrial enterprise customers are driving towards 100% engineering efficiency, ready for 100% effectiveness, and now 100% future proof.”

EcoStruxure Automation Expert v22.0 is the next in an ongoing series of updates and enhancements that Schneider Electric delivers to the market at least twice a year.

World’s first software-centric industrial automation system delivers step-change advancements in operational flexibility, productivity, and ROI

Schneider Electric and ETAP announce new digital twin integration enabling operator training and simulations greatly reducing risk to operations

Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, and ETAP, the industry and technology leader in power system design and operation, today announced the integration of EcoStruxureTM Power Operation with ETAP Operator Training Simulator (eOTSTM) and ETAP Power System Monitoring & Simulation (PSMSTM) enabling model-driven power system training and predictive analysis for operators and engineers.

This unique integration allows all EcoStruxure Power Operation systems to connect with ETAP Electrical Digital Twin on a continuous real-time basis. With this connection, operators can create and understand power system behavior during various real-world or plausible operating scenarios. New operating procedures may be designed and validated against contingencies utilizing their familiar EcoStruxure Power Operation human-machine interface without the risk of affecting actual operations – all thanks to the underlying ETAP eOTS simulation and analysis platform

“A lack of power system intelligence can have huge financial impacts,” said Sophie Borgne, SVP Digital Power at Schneider Electric. “The ability to integrate a digital twin with the Power SCADA system is a one-of-a-kind offering that will help companies avoid unplanned outages caused by human error, reduce start-up and commission times, and evaluate operator awareness and readiness.”

40% of unplanned shutdowns are due to operator missteps. Allowing power system engineers to anticipate potential failures and plan future systems expansions has real business impact as a lack of power system intelligence can cause huge financial losses. Oil and gas platforms experience up to $3 million in losses for every outage, a single electrical event in the semiconductor industry means a $3.8 million loss, while for hospitals, it’s roughly a $1 million loss per 8-hour outage. Using cutting-edge technology to improve system planning and design, recognize and correct potential hidden problems, and avoid unforeseen errors can prevent these costly system disruptions. “Integrating real-time situational awareness, operations management and online electrical network analysis capabilities allows power system operators, engineers and facility managers to better visualize, analyze and optimize their electrical system operations,” said Tanuj Khandelwal, CEO of ETAP. “

ETAP Electrical Digital Twin with its real-time foundation elevates EcoStruxure Power Operation enabling our customers to monitor, manage, control, and perform advanced power analysis within the same environment in a sustainable manner. It is exactly the situational intelligence facilities need to design and operate their networks on a common digital twin driving efficiency and cost savings.

The ability to use live system data from Schneider’s EcoStruxure Power Operation to feed the Electrical Digital Twin significantly reduces system downtime and drives more accurate decision-making, along with:

• Reduced safety risks: This technology helps reduce safety exposures by practicing emergencies and risky situations without the threat of any actual danger. Safety is also enhanced by strengthening operator skills and sharpening decision-making processes by solving and analyzing multiple “What if” scenarios.
• Deeper learnings: ETAP eOTS supports operators in developing a valid sequence of operations, safe switching procedures and validating the response of their Power SCADA respond under a wide range of conditions. An operator training simulator provides a convenient, safe, and effective learning environment. The results provide deep insights to maintain safe and reliable system operations.
• Quicker response time: ETAP PSMS with Predictive Analysis is a model-driven power system simulator that predicts system behaviour in response to operator actions and events using real-time and archived data. ETAP PSMS enables power system engineers to anticipate potential failures and plan future systems expansions. In the event of unexpected equipment failure, faster incident response times are possible due to its unique and unified post-mortem analysis and event playback capabilities.

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