Schneider Electric, an energy management and automation company, recently announced the launch of Asset Connect, a product that allows facility managers to implement their installations with smart sensors, transforming non-communicating equipment into connected assets.
According to Schneider Electric, Asset Connect arms facilities managers with insights delivered through efficient monitoring of critical connections and environment conditions such as thermal and humidity levels and reducing probability of failure and downtime by enabling predictive maintenance. Asset Connect can be directly integrated into existing low and medium voltage substations and has the potential to help facilities managers across all industries, who face the mandate of predictive and efficient maintenance.
As electrical systems age, they are prone to probability of failure that may result in safety risks, costly downtime and more. According to Schneider Electric, Asset Connect delivers insights into the quality of an electrical system that may not be apparent if facility staff are not proactively monitoring the equipment. Asset Connect allows facility managers to identify problems early, thereby delivering quicker recovery time and optimized maintenance for issues that do arise.
Asset Connect provides facility staff with data for their electrical distribution systems. It provides information at the basic alarm level – from a local substation monitoring device (PLC + HMI) – through more advanced insights, such as thermal and humidity data for local SCADA processing.
According to Schneider Electric, Asset Connect will improve daily operations for facility managers by giving them peace of mind that electrical distribution systems are operating smoothly. By connecting the electrical infrastructure through Asset Connect, they will be able to address complicated contacts and receive notifications about issues that have limited access and visibility. Facility managers will have instant access to this information through SMS alerts as well as 24/7 remote access to Asset Connect features. This modernization solution can be integrated with no modification of cables and connections. Installed Asset Connect sensors can monitor the system and predict potential failure, providing a life extension of the existing equipment and continuity of services of up to 15 to 20 years, the company states.
