Schneider Electric has unveiled its Infrastructure of the Future technology suite to support green urbanisation and electric mobility, and counter the causes and effects of climate change.

The approach aims to create more modern, sustainable, efficient, resilient and inclusive urban infrastructure, accelerating global decarbonisation and promoting a better quality of life.

The holistic approach to power businesses and economies aims to tackle the challenges of global urbanisation and the causes and impacts of climate change. Its integrations encompass software for data-driven insights, services for enhanced operations and business continuity, technology for electric mobility, and green technologies and programmes to accelerate the energy transition.

“Resilient infrastructure is a key enabler of productivity and economic development,” said Frédéric Godemel, executive vice president at Schneider Electric. “However, climate change and rapid growth in urbanisation have made it even more crucial for governments, municipalities, public infrastructure owners, energy networks and transport providers to make well-planned investments in smarter, greener solutions to support economic growth.”

In a time of climate change, intensifying natural disasters and rapid urbanisation, infrastructure systems are under immense pressure to deliver resilient and reliable services.

“With urban environments also relying heavily on infrastructure’s ability to handle electrification of public transport, we need a green revolution in infrastructure to keep energy flowing, transport moving and protect business and society against climate change,” Godemel added.

The rising number of extreme weather events around the world is a leading cause of disruption to power, water and transport infrastructure. This disruption takes a $300bn toll on businesses every year. Moreover, with more than six billion people projected to be living in urban areas by 2050, demand for resilient, low carbon infrastructure is rising. Cities will need to handle mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), electrified public transport and smart buildings supplied with reliable and renewable sources of energy and microgrid technologies.

The expansion of population and growth in demand for energy will also lead to fluctuating demands and the development of energy prosumers with self-generated power sources. This will put further stress on aging energy infrastructure, which will need to be more efficient and resilient to stay ahead of the energy transition.

Infrastructure of the Future comprises a set of open and interoperable software that helps infrastructure owners bridge progress and sustainability, including:

• EcoStruxure for e-mobility: an end-to-end connection that goes beyond EV chargers and is easy to install, maintains buildings’ power reliability and provides a convenient experience for EV drivers.
• ETAP train power simulation eTraX: validated, user-friendly and flexible software tools for designing, analysing and managing AC and DC railway infrastructure by ETAP, part of Schneider’s agnostic software portfolio.
• Aveva unified operations centre: a central hub for infrastructure operators that transforms the control room into a collaborative workspace.
• EcoStruxure energy and sustainability services: energy and sustainability expertise to help companies turn energy into a controllable spend, increase efficiency and meet sustainability goals.
• EcoStruxure microgrid advisor: cloud-based, demand-side energy management software that allows users to collect, forecast, and automatically optimise the operation of distributed energy resources using predictive algorithms.

Schneider’s SF₆-free pure air MV technology also provides a way to make infrastructure projects more sustainable. With a combination of shunt vacuum interruption (SVI) and pure air insulation, MV switchgear such as SM AirSeT or RM AirSeT MV are green and digital alternatives to traditional technology and replace SF₆ greenhouse gas with pure air. SM AirSeT MV switchgear has been integral to projects such as a renewed medium-voltage electrical distribution system for electric bus depots in Milan, Italy.

These capabilities are all part of Schneider’s end-to-end integrated software and services that help governments, cities and companies involved in public and private infrastructure projects make them smarter, greener and more efficient to support future demand and help address and combat the challenges posed by climate change.