Schneider Electric Wei Kun: The building of the future should be electrified and digitally "two legs" to walk

Source: World Wide Web

"As Schneider Electric has always advocated, the two most important weapons we give are electrification and digitalization. Recently, Wei Kun, head of the digital building marketing department of Schneider Electric's digital energy efficiency business in China, said in an interview with reporters that Schneider Electric advocates clean electrification and digitalization, and the combination of the two can help buildings reduce carbon emissions and move towards sustainable development.

According to reports, the recent central meeting clarified the positioning of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, especially for the next 5 years to do a good job in carbon peaking work planned a clear "construction drawing". According to the plan, China strives to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. In this regard, experts pointed out that as an important path to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, new and renewable energy sources are bound to accelerate their entry into the mainstream of the energy system and promote breakthroughs in basic theories, technology chains and industrial forms.

Two legs: electrification and digitalization

Wei Kun said, "Electricity is a form of energy that can exist without carbon. Many renewable energy sources can be finally empowered into the whole society through the form of electric energy, so electrification has become a key breakthrough for us to build green buildings. In addition, the value of digitalization lies in the fact that it can help systems to be interconnected, thereby helping building managers to collect, analyze and use energy data in all aspects of the entire life cycle of the building, and ultimately achieve refined management. Therefore, the value of digitalization lies in helping building managers make the most of this data and ultimately build a smarter building. ”

He gave an example: "The Jingcheng Building is the first super high-rise steel structure building in China, and Schneider Electric has carried out digital transformation and upgrading for it. By providing the capital building with integrated solutions and full-life cycle services for strong and weak electricity, seamlessly integrating power monitoring and energy consumption management system, not only makes the equipment operate safely and efficiently, supports remote management, but also further improves the operational efficiency and energy use efficiency, combined with professional optimization control strategies, and finally makes the energy saving effect reach more than 20%. ”

In Schneider Electric's view, digital tools can effectively break the gap between construction investment (Capex) and operation investment (Opex) in the traditional model, and make a breakthrough integration between the two systems, which can achieve the effect of "1+1>2", thereby helping buildings improve collaborative work efficiency in the whole life cycle.

Wei Kun told reporters, "As we all know, many times the operator and maintainer of the building is not the builder or owner. This can create the problem that 'people who really care about the energy consumption of building operations may not be able to participate in the upfront decision-making'. Through digital tools, we can provide full life cycle services, from design, construction, commissioning, operation stages, by providing timely and effective services, full control of construction investment and operation investment. That is to say, through digital opening up the whole life cycle, participants at different stages can see the value they can get at different stages. ”

The Building of the Future: The Use of "People"-Centric Spaces

Wei Kun pointed out that Schneider Electric's vision of the "building of the future" has four major values: "First, we want the building of the future to be a 'sustainable' building, that is, through flexible electrical equipment configuration, including renewable energy generated in the building, while consuming resources and generating resources, it is more environmentally friendly. Second, the building of the future has 'resilience', through rapid fault handling and return to normal operation, empowering the super ability to withstand various challenges from the inside and outside of the building. Third, we want the building of the future to be a 'super efficient' future building, with end-to-end digital platforms for dead-end, no-delay control, faster responses with real-time data, and more at less cost. Finally, we'll go back to the building itself. Buildings are ultimately going to be used by people, and 'people-oriented' is one of the most important traits or portraits of future buildings, that is, adhering to the design concept of meeting people's needs as the principle, providing a safe, healthy environment and comfortable experience beyond expectations. ”

"According to statistics, about 30% of the space in the global building is in an 'idle' state, and this space is wasted." He said that one of the big challenges for buildings now is to continue to improve their ability to manage space and energy consumption. "On the one hand, energy is not fully utilized in the space where it should go; on the other hand, building energy management is not enough in terms of refinement. Therefore, we must slowly transform the 'facility-centric' design concept into a 'people-centered' design concept, so that the space can be used to the extreme. ”

He further explained that Schneider Electric's recent interconnected room solution is practicing the above concept. "This solution actually starts with room control, and all the functions in the whole room or space, such as lighting, (HVAC) control, temperature regulation, etc., are concentrated in a small controller. Then this small controller is a node or carrier of the Building Internet of Things. This carrier can transmit this information and data to the EBO building management system, and even the Internet of Things platform; downward can manage all the equipment and information in the entire space, so that the node of the Internet of Things space can achieve very refined management. ”

Wei Kun pointed out that at present, the new building operation system EBO 3.2 has begun to practice the concept of space management. "By integrating an interconnected room solution into an operating system, it is easy to define the entire space in the room and the entire space in the building, effectively improving the form and utilization of the space."

In the interview, he told reporters that thanks to the rapid growth of the entire construction industry and the extensive promotion of digital technology, the digital development of China's construction industry is in a relatively advanced position in the world. However, it should not be overlooked that China's construction industry is also facing many challenges. "Compared with foreign markets, China's stock market is huge, the overall system is relatively old, and there is a lot of room for improvement." At the same time, the aging of construction operation and maintenance personnel has intensified, and the professional knowledge reserve is lacking, which requires the improvement of professional capabilities and operation and maintenance management capabilities. In both ways, digital tools and technologies can be used to transform old existing buildings on the one hand, and to improve operational efficiency for O&M managers. ”

"However, no matter how good the platform tools are, if the managers of daily operation and maintenance do not use them, they will not be able to exert the maximum benefits." Therefore, Schneider Electric adheres to the principle of simplicity at the level of software design and the construction of system solutions, and reduces technical thresholds and technical barriers as much as possible so that more people can learn to use them. Finally, Wei Kun said, "For example, in software design, we even ask software designers to imagine themselves as older managers, and give this mission to software design, so as to reduce the cost of learning as much as possible." ”