Schneider Electric, the global enabler in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has announced Grid Operations Platform as a Service as part of its EcoStruxure Grid portfolio.
Backed by Microsoft Azure’s open cloud computing platform, Schneider Electric is offering a deployment environment that enables grid planning and operations solutions to be hosted and managed on the cloud.
As the industry experiences significant disruption and technology advancing at a rapid pace, traditional ways of deploying software solutions and associated services are changing. Schneider’s Grid Operations Platform as a Service was built to answer the unprecedented challenges that grid operators face today. While cloud solutions continue to demonstrate value across industries, grid operators can gain value with simplified deployments, incremental enhancements, increased scalability and reduced maintenance – all while enabling managed and advisory services. Simplified, stepwise, cybersecure approaches are in demand for all aspects of grid management, both IT and OT. Schneider Electric is delivering Grid Operations Platform as a Service on Azure in collaboration with Microsoft to address the demands of critical energy infrastructure for the energy industry.
“Microsoft’s commitment to this collaboration is helping drive digital transformation for people, organizations and the industry at large” said Alexis Grenon, SVP Digital Grid at Schneider Electric. “Together we are working to help our customers manage more reliable, efficient, sustainable and secure grids today and into the future.”
Schneider Electric has a strong history of delivering asset management and edge management cloud solutions to utilities and is now extending that success to operations management, with EcoStruxure DERMS (distributed energy resource management systems) and EcoStruxure ADMS (advanced distribution management system) running on Azure, including use cases such as DER (distributed energy resource) management, outage management, grid planning, and user training. This is unlocking value that can be delivered to a much broader market where smaller organizations can realize the same benefits as the largest ones. This progression provides increased value to customers and enables a more agile approach to delivering innovation.
“Microsoft is supporting Schneider Electric in delivering business solutions that allow customers to focus more on their operations and less on managing software infrastructure,” said Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Energy Industry at Microsoft. “This further enables Schneider Electric to address the utility industry’s most pressing business challenges with the flexibility, reliability and security of Azure.”
The announcement comes on the heels of Schneider Electric’s ranking #1 on the Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard for Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) Vendors report. The new DERMS solution addresses utility and grid management needs from a holistic perspective, offering an end-to-end approach to DER management.
Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Grid solution portfolio demonstrates the company’s commitment to a more digital and electric world, and together with Grid Operations Platform as a Service supports the growth of distributed energy resources, microgrids, energy communities, and other flexible resources across digitally planned, designed and operated lifecycles. Grids of the future are powered by data and integrated network models – they are more reliable, flexible, efficient and secure.
