The path to a sustainable future driven by technology was the resounding message during day one of Schneider Electric’s first hybrid Innovation Summit Middle East and Africa (MEA)…reports Asian Lite News
Kicking off the two-day conference, Schneider Electric’s Middle East & Africa President, Walid Sheta, said the company wanted to empower a new generation, seize the potential of digitization, and bring new solutions, software, and services to market.
“We are in a region of opportunity with COP 27 and COP 28 set to lead the way for the Middle East and Africa,” Sheta said. “People are at the core of everything Schneider Electric aims to achieve in pursuit of a sustainable future. As we observe the development of new cities driven by sustainability, we are investing in people and talent to equip them with the tools and technologies they need to bring new innovations to the region.”
Luc Remont, Executive Vice President for International Operations at Schneider Electric, underscored why the adoption of electrification and digitalization is the recipe for a more sustainable, resilient world. During a keynote speech on the future of energy, he described climate change as the “defining issue” of our time.
“To tackle this challenge, the energy sector has to be at the heart of the solution,” Remont stated. “The only way to skip today’s climate crisis is a dramatic scaling-up of energy efficiency combined with the adoption of a new energy landscape. The new energy landscape is unlocking the full potential of energy resources by providing better visibility of distribution systems and consumer dynamics, reliable and flexible grid connections for behind-the-meter resources, markets that welcome aggregated small-scale resources, and fair market compensation for the multiple flexibility benefits of agile technologies.”
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“In order to reach the Paris Climate Agreement, more than 40% of technologies available today need to be cost efficient to close the gap on the 1.5C target. Since the Innovation Summit began five years ago, we’ve seen an 85% increase in consumption savings and a 30% cost saving for energy efficiency across the world from electrification.”
Sebastian Riez, Cluster President for North East Africa and Levant, said digitization and smarter energy management was needed more than ever in a global inflationary environment. “There is no better friend to inflation than digitization, which can substantially reduce costs across data centers, buildings, factories, grids and infrastructure,” he said. “Digital solutions create enormous potential for efficiency and agility. Sustainability is the flipside of energy efficiency, and this itself is another side of digitization. Less energy consumption means fewer carbon emissions and greater sustainability and cost efficiency. This is the dividend of digitization.”
Now in its fifth year, the Innovation Summit MEA is Schneider Electric’s flagship customer event taking place at the Coca-Cola Arena Dubai across 18th and 19th May. It will demonstrate why the blueprint for a more sustainable and resilient world is electric and digital. For more information about the Innovation Summit, visit here.
