Schneider Electric and Canadian firm Workbench Energy, a peak prediction and energy market operations platform, are working together to integrate energy management in Ontario.

The partnership equips large-scale utilities with the ability to monitor and manage their energy consumption around peak periods and reduce their exposure to Ontario’s Global Adjustment (GA). For large electricity consumers, the GA can make up half of their power bill depending on how much their peak energy use contributes to provincial peak demand.

“Schneider Electric is thrilled to partner with Workbench Energy, a company that shares our commitment to providing customers with accessible, efficient and sustainable energy management,” said Hugo Lafontaine, vice-president for Schneider Electric in Canada. “Through this partnership, customers will have greater access to strategic, innovations, including our EcoStruxure power monitoring expert (PME), empowering facilities to maximise uptime and operational efficiency. As energy management continues to evolve in Ontario, partnerships like this one will play a critical role in leading the industry forward.”

Introducing seamless integration between two offerings, the partnership facilitates the real-time transfer of data collected by Schneider Electric’s PME to Workbench Energy’s platform. An element of EcoStruxure, PME leverages IoT connectivity and distributed intelligence to provide energy-intensive facilities with a look into to their digitised power network and can be installed on premise or in the cloud.

By providing users with more insight into their energy consumption, they can respond quickly to peaks by implementing load curtailment, energy storage or back-up power sources such as generators.

“We’re always looking for ways to provide our customers with value-added services to help them manage global adjustment costs and maximise their benefit from interacting with the power system,” said Cam Carver, CEO of Workbench Energy. “Our collaboration with Schneider Electric enables us to collect data from across connected devices and help customers make more informed decisions about their energy patterns and behaviour.”

The partnership should bring cost and energy-saving value to large industrial users, commercial buildings, universities and energy-intensive segments such as mining, minerals and metals. Organisations on the GA will have opportunities to explore Schneider Electric and Workbench Energy’s offering, providing complete energy management. Together, the two companies aim to deliver accurate information and predictions, so users can unlock more value across operations.