SCHNEIDER TO HELP FIRMS INCREASE EFFICIENCY IN ENERGY USAGE

By Wan Nor Azura Mior AbD Aziz

KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 (Bernama) -- Schneider Electric, the global energy
management specialist, aims to help the water industry increase efficiency in
energy usage and reduce capital cost by 30 per cent with its four-step strategy.

Its senior vice president (South-East Asia Zone), Stuart J. Thorogood, said
the strategy would help water-treatment facilities in Malaysia maximise their
energy usage, be more productive as well as make their businesses more
sustainable.

"Since electricity may account for as much as 30 per cent of a facility's
operating costs, our strategy is expected to help ensure efficient energy usage
and cut operational costs," Thorogood told Bernama in an interview recently.

Schneider participated as a silver sponsor at the Asiawater 2010 Expo,
Asia’s biggest biennial show for the water industry from Apr 6-8 at the Kuala
Lumpur Convention Centre.

He said the company hoped that its presence at Asiawater 2010 could create
awareness of its expertise which would also help businesses and individuals use
energy in a more efficient way.

Thorogood said the four key steps to effectively manage energy use were
measure, fix the basics, automate and monitor.

"The first step is to measure or know how much energy you are consuming.

"An energy audit can be done to assess and identify potential savings and
dysfunctions.

"Then we should fix the basics by implementing quick energy-efficient
solutions, such as installing low-consumption equipment and systems to achieve
significant savings," he said.

He said via automated management, companies would only use energy when it
was essential, thus eliminating excess waste while maintaining high performance.

"And the companies can continuously analyse energy savings through
maintenance, supervision and monitoring," he said.

Thorogood said with the implementation of the strategy, the companies would
begin to see the cost benefits, as they noticed reduced energy bills.

He said the management of treatment plants and pumping station networks
would also be improved.

"Additionally, expensive hydraulic equipment won’t break down often, thus
increasing its service life.

"Although everyone can help the planet by turning off the lights or turning
down the air conditioning, this represents only a small fraction of carbon
dioxide emissions.

"Industry, buildings and residences, on the converse, account for more than
70 per cent of energy consumption today.

"It is essential to understand that saving one unit of energy on the demand
side is equivalent to saving three units of primary energy, the oil or the coal
necessary to supply that energy unit," he said.

Thorogood said although clean energy supply, such as hydro, wind and
nuclear, would take time to implement, the quickest action was to save that "one
unit".

Going forward, he said, Schneider was expected to benefit from the improving
market conditions in the new economies, in the data centre activities and the
industrial segments.

"Asia as a whole improved last year with India already back on growth path
and the data centre activities are rebounding," he said.

Meanwhile, Schneider's country president in Malaysia, Mow Li Li, said as
industrialisation and urbanisation continued to gain pace, demand for water and
water-treatment technology in Asia would be among the fastest growing in the
world.

"Reducing the rising economic and environmental costs of water treatment is
an important need in Malaysia. This is made more urgent by the current economic
downturn and global emphasis on reversing climate change, she said.

Schneider Electric has been in Malaysia since the early 1960s. It is based
in Shah Alam and has offices and extensive distribution network nationwide to
serve its customers in Malaysia.

The company supplies cutting-edge products, systems and solutions.

-- BERNAMA