Hello everyone, today I want to tell you about one of the best IoT solutions for industry designed by Schneider Electric, its name: EcoStruxure!
If you like everything related to Automation and you have been following us for a while you have surely read our articles related to IoT, Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, you can click on each of these concepts and you will see the articles we have designed about them.
In this article we will talk specifically about everything that can bring us the EcoStruxure system and what Schneider Electric is putting on the market for the creation of new solutions.
Without further ado, we begin!
What is EcoStruxure?
Schneider Electric is considered one of the companies that best focuses on providing security, efficiency and sustainability solutions to our businesses. Based on these fundamental pillars arises EcoStruxure, a system created as a platform and architecture focused on compatibility with the IoT. Characterized primarily as an open and internally connected system, it offers numerous solutions ranging from the simplest in our homes, to the most complex in data centers and industries.
Through EcoStruxure, being an IoT enabled and 100% functional system allows for all kinds of innovations at all levels of integration. From Connected Products, to Local Control and ending in Applications, Analytics and Services for any type of company, always focused on the 4 fundamental markets that are handled: Buildings, Data Center, Industry and Power Grid.
This tool is able to connect all the elements of a company, from factories to offices, collecting a whole series of data from the installed sensors and storing them in the cloud. It is able to perform a deep analysis of these variables to discover solutions and recommendations for the improvement of the production cycle, allowing the taking of measures through real-time information.
In the following image we can see the schematic distribution previously mentioned.
EcoStruxure Solutions
If you look closely at the bottom of the image above, we can see that all this gear works thanks to 6 specific tools developed by Schneider Electric for EcoStruxure that allows to carry out a better segmentation of the solutions to each of these architectures. Below we will see what each one consists of.
1-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Building
This Schneider Electric tool is directly oriented to the management and creation of intelligent buildings. Remember that one of the main pillars of EcoStruxure is its integration with the IoT. In this case EcoStruxure Building is emerging as an open, scalable and secure platform, which with the power offered by the IoT can create fully digitally connected buildings. It offers a wealth of analytical tools, which, with the right information can manage hospitals, hotels and offices in a more efficient, safe and productive way.
2-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Power
Today, most energy distribution systems remain disconnected from a digital management network or, if they are, they remain largely underutilized. Thanks to the emergence of the IoT it is possible to manage both new and existing installations. With the idea of interconnection and management of energy installations, EcoStruxure Power is born. Thanks to this tool it will be possible to increase productivity and therefore production targets, even for companies with more limited budgets.
Thanks to this tool, the customer will be able to have a huge amount of operating data in real time, which will allow him to make faster decisions in order to solve incidents. You will be able to manage predictive maintenance for the correct operation of your system, in addition to advice and specialized tools to further increase the productivity of the installed system.
3-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Data Center
Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Data Center is a tool that allows the creation and management of Data Centers. It allows the creation of modules and blocks of server racks, power and cooling systems at the individual level. It also operates in the creation of the rows and distribution of these cabinets in a specific space, based on design tools with location rules, always having a guide of what you can do from start to finish to validate the feasibility of the final design.
4-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Machine
One of the biggest challenges in today’s industry is to boost efficiency. Research shows that even 50% of the efficiency and energy production potential has not been achieved. For issues like these Schneider Electric has created the EcoStruxure Machine tool.
This tool is focused on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and machinery manufacturers. Through its products, it makes possible the integration of services by providing the system with accurate monitoring and data analysis to improve production efficiency. It takes the best of mobile and cloud storage technologies to boost efficiency in business management, communications, production security and network protection.
Here are some of its potentialities:
- It is able to show the life cycle of machinery with its intelligent design and engineering ranging from commissioning, real-time operation and intelligent maintenance services from office.
- Interconnection of products for data collection.
- Monitoring, control and commissioning of systems.
- Thanks to the connectivity of its devices, it offers high flexibility that allows integration into the production line.
- It uses open communication standards such as Ethernet and OPC UA, which makes its integration with information technologies and operational technologies possible.
4.1-EcoStruxure Machine Advisor
This tool is included in this Schneider solution and provides a digital service offering that enables its customers to control, monitor and repair their machines from anywhere and at any time. This enables real-time decision making. In addition, it offers analytics capabilities and Machine Learning technologies for monitoring, diagnostics and predictive management in an intelligent way to analyze equipment performance. All this enables the development of strategies that lead to the optimization of machine design and in turn shortens the machine development cycle.
5-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Plant
With the advancement of technologies and the development of the industry, there has been an added pressure to increase production and efficiency of industrial assets around the world. It is well known that any disruption in operations can affect production volume, especially if it is unplanned downtime of a strategic facility. This can have serious economic impacts. We also have the variables of accidents, which can result in human, economic and environmental costs.
For all the above reasons, the efficient management and operation of a production plant is becoming more and more demanding. Ensuring the safety of operators, production and profits is becoming imperative. Thanks to this, EcoStruxure Plant, the tool designed for automatic or manual real-time risk control and measurement, has emerged. It provides employees with tools that will enable them to become performance managers. It maintains the same basis of interconnection of products in the network, control and analysis applications and services.
One of its most interesting tools to use is EcoStruxure’s Triconex safety system, which is capable of sending easy-to-understand alerts to the maintenance manager automatically through the management software that features these safety functions. These alerts also include possible causes and a variety of solutions to these anomalies, allowing problems to be resolved before an accident occurs.
This and other tools in the EcoStruxure Plant environment help employees understand the impact their decisions can have on efficiency, reliability and safety risks. Overall, this tool enables a more efficient, reliable, safe and profitable production system.
6-Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Grid
As we are well aware, a massive migration to renewable energies has begun in recent years. This strategy is gaining momentum with each passing day. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has set a target of 60% of the generation capacity coming from renewable energies.
Many companies also need an uninterrupted and reliable supply of electricity 24 hours a day, all year round. Thanks to this, micro-grids are being designed to enable self-supply as a way of ensuring a reliable supply. This offers great potential on both sides of the energy sector. For energy consumers, communities and companies it provides the opportunity to achieve better efficiency, reliability and sustainability. For companies that control electricity distribution, it means having to manage the grid in a more complicated way. Because of these issues, EcoStruxure Grid has emerged to provide a solution to both sides of the equation.
This tool enables companies to increase efficiency. It helps utilities leverage flexibility by unlocking new approaches for industrial, commercial and corporate electricity consumers. By leveraging the digital architecture and services of the EcoStruxure ecosystem, it provides a comprehensive view of the entire system. It brings reliability to your electricity supply and data integrity by helping to protect your system from cyber-attacks by mitigating cyber risk and giving you sustained operational confidence.
Finishing up with EcoStruxure
We would like if any of our readers knew or have had experience working with the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure ecosystem to leave us their experiences in the comments. We believe that everyone reading this article can benefit from each of the comments shared by you.
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