Best-of-the-Best: Award Winning Critical Power EcoXperts

August 26, 2019 admin Awards, Critical Power, EcoStruxure, EcoXpert, Energy Management/Energy Efficiency, Master EcoXpert, Sustainability

Credit to Author: Kevin Morin| Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 19:49:59 +0000

Recognizing excellence in engineering capabilities for IoT deployment in buildings and critical infrastructure projects is at the heart of Schneider Electric’s EcoXpert Partner Program.

Through training and assessments, the technical competency of system integration companies is validated by Schneider Electric at either a Certified or Master level. At the Master-level, Schneider Electric has recognized not only a strong partnership, but also excellence in business achievement and technical results.

Each year, Master-level business partners with a Critical Power EcoXpert badge are invited to join a global-event that brings together Schneider and EcoXpert business leaders to review best practices and to plan product and solution portfolios for the next generation of electrical power management systems. In 2019 the Critical Power Master event was hosted in Hong Kong, and Schneider Electric China played host to our 30 Master-level delegates from 17 countries. Four Master-level Critical Power EcoXpert companies were singled out in the following awards categories: Technical Innovation; Business Achievement; Partner of Distinction; and Project of the Year.

Technical Innovation: Energy Insight – South Africa

Addressing energy conservation needs of existing buildings is a massive challenge in every country. For a university in South Africa, improving efficiency not only helps save on operational cost, it reduces reliance on an already stressed electrical grid. Energy Insight provides a range of engineering services for their clients, and in this project, they were tasked with updating a relay-based control scheme for campus heating controls. To deliver a cost-effective solution, Energy Insight relied on the embedded ION functionality in Schneider’s PM8000 electrical power meter to add digital controls to the existing infrastructure.

Business Achievement: METRUM – Brazil

Integration of renewable sources of energy is happening everywhere. For utility scale providers of wind farms, grid operators are now concerned with more than a reliable breeze, the harmonic distortion created by the large turbines has the possibility of impacting downstream consumers while also reducing transmission capacity through added reactive power. METRUM has long been a partner of Schneider in Brazil and is also recognized by grid operators and regulators for their excellence in engineering solutions. METRUM is now completing pilot projects to validate the use of active harmonic filters for use in wind farms. METRUM’s solution, using Schneider’s Accusine PCS+ product provides a solution to enable wind farm operators to run at full-capacity and with improved responsiveness to dynamic Power Quality conditions. This means more renewable energy is delivered on the Brazilian grid, in a faster amount of time, and with more reliability.

Partner of Distinction: Global Power Technologies – USA

It’s predicted that by 2025, Datacenters (globally) will consume 20% of the electrical energy produced on earth. Data is the bottom-line for world’s fastest growing companies, and they are responding with an unprecedent boom in construction of sophisticated large-scale data centers in strategic locations around the globe. Managing and controlling the power distribution infrastructure of these facilities is critical to their operations, and more often than not, Global Power Technologies (GPT) is involved in these systems. The Partner of Distinction award is given to a Master-level Critical Power EcoXpert each year that best represents the word “Partnership”. GPT is recognized for their commitment to their customers, the most important of partnerships.

Project of the Year: AZZO – Australia

Unsurprisingly, a project with a University is represented again in our awards. Universities present an amazing opportunity for system integrators who are Certified as a Critical Power EcoXpert. Providing value back to a university through energy costs saving, sustainability, operational efficiency, and improved power reliability are all bedrock principles that these EcoXperts deliver. AZZO is a forerunner of implementing new technology and creative IoT solutions that provide true ROI to their customers. They are recognized for the Project of the Year award for their design, installation, commissioning and service of a MicroGrid network at a university in the state of Victoria, Australia. AZZO has provided an advanced electrical controls solution that enables the university to become their own utility provider with an inter-tie to the national grid. The solution they provided has become a live-learning lab for the engineering school, while also providing value to the entire student body through interactive dashboards and with energy-saving challenges. Integration of solar energy is becoming commonplace for universities, but a full-scale suite of energy management tools and programs that extend to water and gas, classroom and operations, battery storage and grid controls requires the help of a true Master. AZZO was the previous Project of the Year winner for 2017.

Selecting winners for the above awards is always a difficult task, and close runners-up who were also recognized at the Hong Kong event include: PROK Elektroanlagen (DE), Hanzhou SEACE Electric (CN), SAM-A Techno Solutions (KR), Shanghai Yuanhui Electric Engineering (CN), and Abampere (AR)

As corporations look for more ways to improve their energy efficiency and improve operational reliability through integration of IoT solutions the number of system integration companies looking to become Certified by Schneider Electric as a Critical Power EcoXpert continues to grow. Over 700 companies around the world are now working with Schneider Electric. In 2020 a new delegation of companies will be recognized as being the the world’s leading integrators of power management systems.