For Schneider Electric’s involvement in our recent Developing Cities For The Future Conference we’ve been speaking exclusively to their Vice President of Digital Energy – Kas Mohammed..

Q. What are the primary ways that Schneider Electric and your technologies are helping to advance the transition towards smart cities?

“Buildings are a core component of our smart cities. The impact of many smart cities programmes has ultimately been stifled due to overlooking the role of buildings as a key enabler. It is impossible, for instance, for cities to use energy more efficiently if buildings have not been re-engineered to support this objective.

“From hospitals to offices, and schools to universities – our buildings are becoming inter-connected, communicating with, and learning from, one another through the power of IoT and AI solutions. Schneider Electric is well positioned to facilitate the smart transition in each of these settings. We offer industry-leading onsite and digital connected services to increase building performance, and smart building technologies, such as IoT devices, which seamlessly integrate across systems and help create an environment that keeps occupants safe. The super-sustainable EUREF-Campus in Berlin is a great example of the benefits of EcoStruxure in sprawling, complex and interconnected locations.

“Our energy management systems allow building managers to connect, collect and monitor data from buildings and their components remotely. In doing so, they can use smart analytics to identify inefficiencies or issues with their operations. Not only can this insight help to reduce carbon emissions, but also increase building resiliency by protecting critical assets and avoiding operational losses through unplanned downtime.

“Furthermore, occupancy and environmental sensors can inform the way we use spaces. For example, we deployed Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ Workplace Advisor across our London, Warrington, and Coventry offices earlier this year. This system helps to inform long-term real estate decisions, optimise use of space, improve comfort, and enhance productivity, enabling a more flexible and efficient office and homeworking combination.

“In short, there are no smart cities without smart buildings. Our smart building solutions unlock the potential of real-estate to be sustainable, resilient, hyper-efficient and people centric. And, in turn, our cities become smarter, safer, greener, and more comfortable, too.”

Q. How can smart technology help lead the way when it comes to the climate crisis and how has this process begun?

“Energy waste is the UK’s third-largest source of CO2 emissions, and 82% of the potential means to reduce energy waste in buildings alone remains untapped. Buildings represent potentially the single greatest opportunity for decarbonisation. Whilst newly constructed buildings are more energy efficient, these cannot be our sole focus, especially in our already heavily built-upon cities.

“The UK has one of the oldest building stocks in the EU, so digitally retrofitting our existing buildings has the greatest scope for decarbonising the UK building stock and bringing us closer to Net Zero with a single action. We must take the buildings of today and make them digital buildings of the future.

“Digital retrofitting is the process of connecting all the things that use energy in a building so that they can communicate with one another. This enables them to be controlled remotely, autonomously or via artificial intelligence, switching off heating, cooling, or lighting when rooms aren’t occupied, monitoring temperatures to create optimal environments, and warning building managers when adjustment or maintenance is needed. 

“You cannot fight something you can’t see. The level of insight digital retrofitting brings allows us to build a benchmark of current energy usage and improve it over time which is critical if we are to beat climate change. That is why the digitisation of our buildings must be the first move on the road to net zero – simply put, we cannot improve what we don’t understand.”

Q. Schneider Electric has drawn attention to excess energy usage in homes, how can smart technology be transformative on home energy use?

“Residential housing is set to become the biggest consumer of electricity globally. EV charging, the electrification of heat and increased occupancy as more people work from home will see consumers’ electricity consumption dramatically increase over the next 10 years.

“Efficient energy management is more important than ever to ensure homes are powered sustainably and are intelligent enough to optimise their own energy needs, without sacrificing comfort. The basis for this goes beyond smart home technology and requires a fully connected and integrated power management system for the home. When consumers have real insight into the energy use within their home, they can make effective decisions that cut waste and have a real impact.”

Q. Some aspects of smart technology have been criticised for potentially harmful data harvesting, how can data-driven technology balance privacy and efficacy?

“As our cities become smart and more inter-connected, the threat of cyber-attacks against Building Management Systems is a growing concern. The silver lining is that much of the data collected and held by smart building systems is anonymous. Occupancy levels and space usage information are not personally identifiable. By ensuring this, the risk of cyberattacks, to the individual occupant, at least, is somewhat mitigated.

“However, new cyber threats are arising regularly, and the deployment of growing numbers of internet-of-things devices makes smart building systems increasingly vulnerable. Therefore, it is essential to protect the safety of inhabitants of smart cities. At Schneider Electric, we believe that it is fundamental to integrate the right people, processes, and technology to ensure this strong line of defence.

“We’ve embedded security throughout our open, IoT-enabled architecture and platform: EcoStruxure. This solution includes an open but tailored stack of connected products; edge control level solutions and software; and cloud-based apps, analytics, and services. Take the EcoStruxure Building solution, for example. This solution is designed to support industry standard and IP-based open protocols, to facilitate the secure exchange of data and analytics between critical buildings systems, from both Schneider Electric and third-party providers. By ensuring the exchange of data is both open and cybersecure, we can strike the perfect balance between privacy and efficacy.”

Q. How is the burgeoning internet of things shaking up the built environment and how do you see this concept advancing?

“Emerging technologies, like IoT, are fundamentally changing how modern buildings are designed, built and operated. We are no longer strangers to smart, IoT technology – indeed, a quarter of us use a smart speaker at home. To meet the demands of tomorrow and create healthy, sustainable, and productive urban environments, connected technology is now being applied in commercial buildings.”

“IoT technology, in this context, means thousands of sensors and other connected devices are embedded into the fabric of the building and exchanging information over the Internet. This new digital era is full of potential for hyper-efficient, people-centric buildings, both new and existing. Increasingly, IoT is engrained into the design and construction of new buildings. With ever-improving data collection and analysis, IoT energy management systems are already allowing facility managers to make more informed, smart choices for efficient and sustainable buildings. For example, using data from sensors, Schneider Electric’s weather prediction software provides forecast data to the company’s building management software, which then regulates building operations according to these forecasts.”

“The new generation of energy management systems will further harness the benefits of connected technology. This is achieved through a variety of IoT-enabled devices modelled on a single online platform, which ultimately provides heightened visibility into the entire infrastructure from a web interface. The volume and variety of data points collected allows for in-depth, holistic analysis of an entire electrical infrastructure, rather than individual assets or isolated systems.

“Using trends, heat maps, benchmarking, and forecasting, amongst other methods, to analyse this data gives full visibility of system performance and opportunities for optimisation of energy, costs and space. At Schneider Electric, we recognise the power of complete visibility, and have designed our open EcoStruxure platform to achieve just that for customers like Grand Medica, who reduced electrical operational costs by 20% through visibility of real-time engineering data.”