Schneider Electric has called on global energy decision makers to prioritise digital upgrades and to realise the potential of sustainable, resilient, efficient and flexible smart electricity grids — Grids of the Future.

This comes as world leaders recently gathered at COP28 in Dubai to discuss climate action acceleration solutions, while key players in the electric power industry met at Enlit Europe 2023 in Paris to discuss transformative solutions for Europe’s electricity systems.

Schneider Electric’s experts who attended Enlit Europe 2023 argued that the outdated grid infrastructure was holding back the energy transition and proposed that increased network automation on smart grids run by smart electric utility companies could shape the future of a low-carbon energy sector.

Schneider Electric Power Systems and Services Executive VP Frederic Godemel said: “The real challenge of the energy transition is increasing network output and efficiency, doing that in the right way by connecting more renewables to the grid, and ensuring emissions don’t rise in parallel.

“We simply aren’t moving fast enough toward the flexible, digitalised electricity grids to enable this, despite already having the connected equipment and software technologies to do so.”

At Enlit 2023, Schneider Electric unveiled new innovations capable of enabling electric utility companies to deploy agile grid digitalisation and offering better collaboration between all those involved in the electricity value chain. These included:

• RM AirSeT – new pure air solution for France’s national electrical distribution network: AirSeT’s pure air technology eliminates the use of the potent SF greenhouse gas from medium-voltage (MV) electrical equipment. RM AirSeT is the first of a new generation of gas-insulated switchgear piloted on France’s MV distribution network. As part of its certification process, Enedis, Europe’s largest distribution network operator, has selected Schneider Electric as one supplier of SFfree equipment for substations on the French network.
• EcoStruxure Microgrid Flex: An industry-first that standardises and simplifies microgrid configuration for faster implementation, drastically reducing project timelines. After an initial launch earlier this year, Microgrid Flex is set to expand to additional select markets in Europe.
• EcoStruxure Transformer Expert: An easy-to-deploy IoT sensors and software analytics subscription for oil transformers that helps monitor transformer health and optimise maintenance through condition-based monitoring.
• EcoStruxure Power Automation System: The PowerLogic P7 protection relay, its digital twin, and the latest EcoStruxure Power Automation System Engineering and EcoStruxure System Management tools help create a virtual representation of a substation that spans its lifecycle for more reliable electrical grids, reduced maintenance costs, and optimised power management.
• New cloud-based EcoStruxure Distributed Energy Resource (DERMS): Now available on Microsoft Azure, EcoStruxure DERMS manages distributed energy resources (electric vehicles, energy storage and rooftop solar) to meet rapidly increasing capacity demand and enable rapid deployments with flexible customer journeys.
• New era of Digital Grid platform: With the latest releases of EcoStruxure Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) due out in January 2024 and EcoStruxure ArcFM, the digital grid platform is one step closer to a converged, data-centric architecture using a single network model to boost efficiency, reduce costs, improve reliability and grid efficiency.