PlantStruxure Collaborative System to Automate Processes, Optimize Energy Usage

Feb. 8, 2010
PlantStruxure is Schneider Electric's new collaborative system designed to allow industrial and infrastructure companies to meet their automation needs and at the same time deliver on growing energy management requirements.
PlantStruxure is Schneider Electric's new collaborative system designed to allow industrial and infrastructure companies to meet their automation needs and at the same time deliver on growing energy management requirements. According to Andrew Brown, system marketing manager, who unveiled the system at a press conference today at the ARC World Industry Forum, "PlantStruxure offers flexible, scalable and collaborative architectures that are the building blocks for manufacturing and process within Schneider Electric's comprehensive EcoStruxure energy management architecture portfolio." EcoStruxure allows organizations to improve energy efficiencies across multiple domains of business including process automation. PlantStruxure integrates both hardware and software components throughout the plant, delivering a complete process management solution that allows companies to optimize their energy usage and drive maximum efficiency within their operations while also improving productivity.

"Today industrial companies face a multitude of challenges on different fronts, including increased competitive pressures, a volatile global economy, tighter compliance and regulatory requirements and higher costs of materials," said Michel Crochon, executive vice president, industry business, Schneider Electric. "To compete in this new world, collaboration and decision-making based on actionable and relevant information is essential. PlantStruxure breaks down information silos with open, standards-based technologies to drive speed and agility - helping users gain a unique competitive advantage. "

PlantStruxure allows easy collaboration between plant and operation managers, as well as engineering and maintenance teams through its powerful software suite combined with field proven hardware and open Ethernet-based technologies. PlantStruxure enables high process availability and offers redundancy and functional safety at each level of the architecture, to meet the requirements of industries such as oil & gas, chemical, petrochemical, power and mining. Through architectures based on EcoStruxure's intelligent energy management solutions, organizations that use PlantStruxure benefit from reduced project development, operation and production costs, while gaining real-time visibility of business performance, improved compliance and ROI.

"Traditionally, process automation systems, energy management systems, production management systems, and even plant design and engineering tools have each occupied separate domains. Manufacturers and the industry in general are increasingly moving to single environment encompassing production management, energy management and control systems functions as well as business information," said Crochon.

With PlantStruxure, Schneider Electric leverages its experience in the domains of automation, process control and energy management to deliver a system that provides a single architecture for all process control needs. PlantStruxure allows users to optimize their plant efficiency, reduce operating costs and improve energy efficiency by implementing strategies that combine all of these aspects across the entire lifecycle of their system.

Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group, authored the white paper "Schneider Electric Deploys New PlantStruxure Platform. "Conventional approaches to process automation and operations management are evolving as processors and manufacturers demand enhanced visualization, intelligence, control and agility, which requires increased power and energy management capabilities," according to Resnick. "A collaborative framework, such as Schneider Electric's PlantStruxure platform, will encourage the further breakdown of barriers to information by enabling a more comprehensive multi-disciplined operational strategy, which in turn impacts productivity, responsiveness, lifecycle costs, energy efficiency, and most importantly, profitability."

PlantStruxure is a building block of EcoStruxure, Schneider Electric's solution architecture which enables intelligent energy management solutions for customers seeking to optimize energy efficiencies across multiple domains of their business, first announced in November 2009. EcoStruxure connects five domains of expertise: Power, Datacenters, Process and Machines, Building Control and Physical Security - within an open and flexible technology architecture that delivers up to 30 percent savings in energy efficiency.

To read the full White Paper, "Schneider Electric Deploys New PlantStruxure Platform," by ARC Advisory Group please visit http://www.schneider-electric.com/documents/solutions/domains/PlantStruxureWhitepaperbyARC.pdf . Schneider Electric will be rolling out PlantStruxure as well as corresponding training throughout 2010. For more information on PlantStruxure and how Schneider Electric can be your complete, one-stop solution provider, visit www.schneider-electric.com.