How do you see the PM's vision of 100 smart cities and its possible impact on the concerned companies?
Schneider Electric totally and wholeheartedly supports the Government 100 Smart City Plan. It is a very bold and visionary initiative that is the need of the nation. It will lead to massive employment generation, support the rapid urbanization and assist in the much needed emphasis on the manufacturing industry.
100 Smart Cities will provide a unique opportunity to reap the twin benefits of rapid urbanization and young demography. The scale of this urbanization and the manner in which the Government is planning to support this urbanization with 100 Smart Cities is unprecedented and beyond imagination. Nowhere in the world has ever anything like this been witnessed before. Just to give you a perspective, the number of people that are likely to be benefited or let us say be positively affected by the 1483 KM long DMIC is so huge that if it was a country, it would be the third biggest country in the world.
How well is Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited (SEIL) positioned to offer smart technological solutions to optimize key infrastructure and improve efficiency in such cities?
Schneider Electric with its rich basket of offer from products to solutions, integrated state of the art software and immense experience in the domain of Smart Cities, is uniquely positioned to support the vision of the Government and make it a reality.
Let us take an example. Our ICM (Integrated City Management) platform integrates mobility data, CCTV data, sensors, along with weather data, and so on. This makes it possible to simulate, with a high degree of accuracy and reliability, the impact of a storm, however large, on the city's transportation system. This allows the city to prepare and react, predict and proactively manage any situation. Other integrated solutions include: Smart Grid Advanced Distribution Management Systems for energy, which is running every day in many cities in China; SCADA for water, which is in place in several cities in North and South America; plus Resource Advisor, a robust Software as a Service (SaaS) reporting dashboard that connects across energy procurement, energy use and carbon emissions - initially developed for companies, it is now also available for cities. The technology not only exists, it works.
What are the solutions offered by Schneider for the construction of Smart cities?
Our value proposition is clear and simple: we deliver urban efficiency - today. Infrastructures are the building-blocks of cities. Improving their efficiency is the pre-requisite to be 'smart'. This involves operational technology (OT) as well as information technology (IT) to fix the issues, which provide the city with effective management systems, and citizens with better public and innovative private services.
Working with partners and cities' stakeholders – including its leaders and its citizens – Schneider Electric combines operational intelligence and IT expertise to improve the efficiency of everyday life in our cities. Last but not the least, we have more than 200 city references as well as a large business development portfolio, making us a very legitimate and credible player in the Smart City space.
These 200 city references have given us rich experience and huge learning that can be brought to India.
Our role and approach is somewhat like this:
Getting started - Getting the basics in place. Bringing together city leadership, local stakeholders and business voice around a shared, citizen-centric vision and holistic roadmap. It's about the community identifying the most pressing challenges - be it lower energy costs, fewer floods, more effective public transportation, and stronger social inclusiveness.
Laying the foundations - Improving the efficiency of urban infrastructure, leveraging Operational Technology & IT to make a clear, measurable difference. This is why it is essential that cities engage with business upfront to help build the roadmap, agree the KPIs of success, define the investment plan and the financing mechanisms.
Integration - Integrating Operational Technology + IT where it makes sense, to provide new, better services and deliver additional value to citizens - selectively integrating data across urban systems for better public efficiency.
Collaboration - Making it happen through collaboration between city, community and business, between global and local industry players, across sectors and across city domains.
Innovation - Breaking down barriers and driving valuable, meaningful change through technical, financial & organizational innovation. Let business bring in whatever technologies that will deliver the results they have committed to, combine them in open platforms that enable collaboration, agree the business model - and deliver, working together.
Considering complexities of Indian markets where every step should be looked into before introducing new products; does SEIL really do R&D keeping Indian conditions in view?
SEIL has 5 Manufacturing Units, whereas Schneider India group has total 32 Manufacturing Units. We manufacture Transformers, MV Switchgears (AIS, GIS), RMUs, Compact Substations, Automation (Feeder Automation, Substation Automation), Relays etc. This is complemented by Schneider Group Factories making LT Switchgears, Capacitors, Building Management Systems, UPS, Data Centre Solutions, Lighting Controls, Process Automation Solutions & Products etc.
It is always our endeavour to deliver efficient solutions that optimize energy performance while conserving resources; across the global energy chain, enabling people to experience and transform efficiency at home, at work, across the grid and the city.
Seeing the 10-point agenda of the new government focusing on energy; how do you see the growth potential and opportunity for your business in the near future?
Integration of energy was always the imperative need of our Nation and the first step of consolidation of ministries like Coal, Power and NRE under one cabinet minister is a great step that shows the clarity of vision of the new Government. It is both visionary and smart thinking. So as we move forward we will witness Smart grids that will integrate wind, solar and other renewable sources of energy with existing conventional sources and these Smart grids will carry energy to the end consumers where technology enabled integrated, instrumented and intelligent city waits to receive this energy and such a city will have solutions that will have on a single dashboard every bit of information presented, perfected and predicted by using millions of sensors that will collect, collate and crunch big data like never before.
What are Schneider's future plan to introduce new products or market expansion considering the significance of Indian market?
There is a very interesting shift happening in the world economic center and industrialization
Non-OECD economies represented 35% of world GDP in 2012 and should reach close to 58% by 2030. Their share of global energy demand will continue to rise – from 55% in 2010 to close to 65% by 2035 – because of demographics, industrialization, urbanization, and growing affluence.
These dramatic shifts will change our world. In economic terms, it means that new economies are the drivers of global growth – and this trend should continue for years to come.
The growing trend of industrialization in emerging markets promises business growth and expansion opportunities for Schneider Electric. For long term sustainable development in these emerging markets, Schneider Electric will have to focus on combining its global value chain with local partnerships to contribute toward the economic development through job creation and poverty reduction. For industrial competitiveness, Schneider Electric will have to invest in enhancing its production capacity, physical and technological infrastructure to meet the growing demands for standardized and cost efficient products and services.
Schneider Electric's strategy of spreading its presence between regions and increasing presence in emerging countries, a presence that has grown from approximately 20% in 2000 to 43% in 2013, has enabled Schneider Electric to seize the opportunities in these new markets and will continue to do so in years to come. Schneider Electric currently holds significant presence in new economies in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia (now the 5th market in Schneider Electric) – the decision to split its Executive Committee into three management hubs, a pioneer management decision, allows Schneider Electric to be close to its customers in all markets – remaining local while being global.
And with this backdrop of our focus on new economies, it is obvious that India is amongst the top countries on our strategic business plans.
Just to give you some statistics, today we have an employee strength of 19,000 in India and with 31 factories, 45000 points of sales, and 2000 partners we are engaged in more than 60 cities. Last year we celebrated our 50 years in India and conducted road shows in 50 cities, showcasing our presence in every aspect of energy consumption and management.
