Schneider Electric releases latest version of its SCADA software

The energy management and automation company, Schneider Electric, has announced the latest version of its award-winning software, EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation (PSO). Designed to provide real-time vision and control for timely response, this newest addition to the EcoStruxure Power edge control portfolio keeps demanding operations running with new levels of speed and situational awareness.

Power SCADA Operation (PSO) is a key element within the EcoStruxure Power platform, part of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure architecture, the open and interoperable system architecture for building, grid, industry, and data center customers. This latest edition of PSO significantly augments its industry leading edge control offers, and is an essential platform within a connected and integrated power distribution network.

“If you run a large, power-critical facility, every second of downtime comes with huge business interruptions and financial losses, puts lives at risk, or can potentially damage an organisation’s reputation”, noted Farokh Ghadially, Vice President for Partner Projects and Power Solutions for Schneider Electric.

“PSO is engineered to help power-critical facilities like data centers, hospitals, oil and gas operations, and airports maximise their uptime. It’s a SCADA system uniquely designed for large electrical distribution applications. It has built-in architectural redundancy for the peace of mind that your network remains reliable even if a worst-case scenario occurs.”

EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation reveals risks and opportunities, extends network and diagnostic support, and new control capabilities:

• High-availability control & alarming: Uses redundant software (PSO) and hardware (M580 field automation controller) featuring PLC time-stamped event capture.
• Breaker Performance Module: Detect when protection settings have been changed. Analyse circuit breaker aging to enable proactive maintenance.
• Continuous Thermal Monitoring: Avoid electrical fires using wireless busbar temperature sensors.
• Energy Analysis Module: Model and forecast energy usage, quantify savings, meet ISO50001 requirements, and track energy performance indicators per ISO50006.
• Multi-Site Support: Enable roll-based access to one or more sites with full time zone support.
• Cybersecurity: Windows active directory, McAfee whitelisting, and security best practices.
• Newest ‘Edge Control’ software addition to IoT-enabled EcoStruxure Power architecture, reveals every power-related hidden risk and opportunity.
• Provides the power of a SCADA system that is uniquely designed for power management applications.

In large and critical buildings, uptime and reliability is paramount. For example, power quality issues can cause outages that cost as much as $1 million+ per day, while operations and maintenance costs can represent as much as 80 percent of the total lifecycle cost over a 50-year period. Plus, reliability ensures productivity and operational efficiency, so when equipped with the proper data and insight, these facilities can realise new operational efficiencies, opening new avenues of innovation. EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation helps to enable this.

One Schneider Electric customer, a large data center, installed an EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation system combined with our connected products, such as power quality meters, for millisecond timestamp accuracy and power events analysis to determine electrical root causes and sequence of events analysis. While this customer’s previous system left them in the dark for several minutes before even alerting about an event, PSO integrated easily with third-party devices, handled a multi-source electrical distribution network, included live monitoring of Ethernet connected meters & PLCs with refresh rates of less than one second.

“Our customers will discover a flexible, redundant architecture with information and control exactly how they need it,” concluded Farokh. “PSO helps them protect their people and assets, optimise their business continuity, maximise operational efficiency and simplify their reporting and compliance.”