Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
After assuming the top job at Schneider Electric late last year, CEO Olivier Blum welcomed hundreds of users and partners last week to the company’s Innovation Summit, held this year in Copenhagen. Blum presented the company’s vision for the future, emphasizing the convergence of electrification, automation, and digital intelligence to foster sustainability. He described energy as the foundation of innovation and sustainability, asserting that Schneider Electric aims to be the energy technology partner for every industry, business, and home.
In his keynote address, Blum highlighted the urgency of the energy transition, noting that global power demand is expected to rise by 60 percent over the next 15 years, while renewables like solar and wind are projected to triple in share by 2030. Schneider’s response is to lead by embedding intelligence into infrastructure through platforms such as EcoStruxure, enabling real-time control and optimization across all sectors.
Strategy for Grid Resilience
“A stressed grid needs digitalization more than ever before” - This view is what drives Schneider Electric's strategy for grid resilience, which focuses primarily on digitalization, intelligent software, and microgrids, all supported by strategic partnerships. The goal is to build a modern, flexible, and robust grid that can withstand growing energy demands, extreme weather, and the expansion of renewable energy sources.
Schneider’s new strategy for utilities is called the One Digital Grid Platform. According to the company, this modular, AI-powered platform a complete ecosystem of solutions providing a unified, real-time view of the electric grid, and supporting the entire grid lifecycle, from planning and operations to customer engagement.
One Digital Grid Platform consists of:
• Grid Planning & Asset Management, helping utilities optimize infrastructure investments by integrating advanced design, validation, and data management tools. This ensures long-term grid reliability while reducing capital and operational costs.
• Grid Operations & Resiliency, providing real-time and go-forward awareness by leveraging operational and third-party data and utilizing first-party predictive analytics and advanced solutions from industry leaders, like AiDASH, to deeply understand climate risk. These capabilities improve disaster response, maximize efficiency, and enhance grid flexibility, even during extreme weather events.
• Grid Flexibility & Customer Engagement, empowering utilities to seamlessly integrate DERs while enhancing customer experiences. The platform supports a more dynamic, consumer-driven energy ecosystem by streamlining interoperability with solutions from partners like leading prosumer engagement platform provider.
AI & Infrastructure: The Need for Liquid Cooling
Schneider Electric has grown its footprint in the data centers market in the last decade, and in 2025 the company acquired a controlling interest in Motivair, a US company that specializes in liquid cooling and advanced thermal management solutions for high performance computing systems. At the Innovation Summit, the company addressed the infrastructure challenges posed by next-gen AI workloads, noting that Thermal Design Power (TDP) has surged from 700W to 2700W in just two years, driven by GPUs like NVIDIA’s GB200. To meet these demands, Schneider presented end-to-end cooling solutions, including ChilledDoor rear door heat exchangers (up to 75kW/rack), dynamic cold plates for processors exceeding 1,500W, and coolant distribution units scaling to 5MW. According to Schneider, these technologies are already cooling 6 of the 10 fastest supercomputers globally, underscoring the company’s leadership in AI infrastructure.
Schneider Electric envisions a future of industrial automation that is open, hardware-independent, and software-defined—empowering manufacturers with flexibility, resilience, and innovation.
Virtualization and Open Software-Defined Automation (OSDA).
Most top automation suppliers have unveiled their product strategies that address the trend toward virtualization and software-defined automation. Schneider Electric points out the difference: While the supplier offers a virtual PLC, it views the vPLC as part of its greater OSDA vision. EcoStruxure Automation Expert is Schneider’s platform for universal automation that allows control applications to be designed independently of hardware and deployed in virtualized environments, from industrial PCs on the shop floor to servers in a data center. The “open” part of OSDA is Schneider’s plan to transform industrial automation by promoting open, interoperable ecosystems independent of traditionally, proprietary hardware. This philosophy embraces open standards to ensure that automation solutions can be deployed across vendors and platforms.
Key elements include:
• EcoStruxure Automation Expert: A universal automation platform that supports hardware-independent control and application-centric design.
• Industrial Copilot: An AI-powered assistant helps generate PLC code and streamlines machine integration using generative AI.
• Digital Continuity Tools: Tools that connect IT and OT systems, enabling real-time data sharing and predictive analytics across operations.
• Cybersecurity and Resilience: Built-in security features ensure safe deployment of software-defined systems in critical environments.
With OSDA, Schneider Electric aims to eliminate vendor lock-in and give customers freedom to choose best-fit technologies. The supplier expects to help customers accelerate innovation through faster application development and deployment, and to enhance sustainability by enabling circular economy practices and energy-efficient operations. Finally, the OSDA is meant to empower workers with intuitive tools and AI-driven support for complex tasks. According to Schneider, the goal is to trigger a mindset shift toward more adaptable, intelligent, and future-ready industrial systems.
The OSDA booth demonstration showed a Modicon PLC connected to IO modules from various competitors, including Phoenix Contact, Rockwell Automation and Siemens.
Aveva and Etap Integration
Aveva, Schneider Electric’s software arm, demonstration the integration of Aveva software with Electrical Transient Analyzer Program (Etap), a software platform for the design, modeling, simulation of electrical power systems. According to AVEVA, the integration optimizes both process manufacturing and electrical systems, creating a seamless link between process and power engineering. Following the example of OSDA, it would be interesting to see how Schneider Electric software solutions promote open practices and interconnection with other platforms.
Schneider Electric Launches SE Advisory Services
Schneider Electric used the Innovation Summit to launch SE Advisory Services, consolidating thousands of the company’s consultants and technical specialists into an organization that offers services to end users, leveraging the company’s vast industry experience and technological expertise. The company sees this as a key element to differentiate itself from other consulting companies. Consulting services include strategic guidance on sustainability, energy efficiency, and risk management, along with software and project implementation.
According to Schneider, SE Advisory Services will assist clients with challenges such as rising energy demand and decarbonization, helping them to improve operational efficiency, manage risk, and meet sustainability targets through electrification, automation, and digitalization. Key services offerings include implementing digital transformation strategies, developing sustainability roadmaps, and mitigating risks related to energy volatility and climate change.
Innovation Summit in a Nutshell
The Innovation Summit reinforced Schneider Electric’s commitment to sustainable transformation, AI-powered infrastructure, and open, software-defined ecosystems. The company’s strategy is not just to keep pace with change but to lead the energy transition, positioning itself at the intersection of technology, climate, and industry evolution.