Chairman of the Supreme Council of Energy and Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, inaugurated the ‘Power to the Cloud’ conference and exhibition, Scheider Electric’s an annual event.
The two-day event, held at Atlantis – The Palm in Dubai , demonstrates the company’s leading position in Smart Cities under the theme ‘Building Next-Generation Mission Critical IT Infrastructure’. The exhibition gathered global experts in smart cities and data centres together under one roof, and the conference has emerged as a must-attend event for examining solutions in power and energy management, as well as water use and reduction in travel time and traffic delays.
The conference that has attracted professionals and influencers from the IT and government sectors from across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa is focusing on the looming imperative of energy consumption doubling in the next 40 years. The experts are also looking at the urgency to mitigate CO2 emissions by nearly half their current levels and increase energy efficiencies four times higher.
The event is also looking to deliberate on the enhanced role of data centres in building a world of efficient cities. As a pioneer in providing solutions for effective datacentre management, Schneider Electric is committed to promoting smart integration through data centres for achieving tangible goals in smart energy, smart mobility, smart public services and smart buildings and homes.
Thierry Chamayou, Vice President – Middle East & Africa IT Business, Schneider Electric, said: “The IT growth and the urbanisation, industrialisation and digitisation of our economies are driving high energy consumption today and this growth will continue as global economies seek to develop further. To give an example, in 2010 nearly 12.5 billion devices were connected through the internet. This is set to grow to to 25 billion by 2015 against the global population of 7.2 billion in the same year. Dubai is at the heart of this growth in the Middle East and its aspiration to evolve as a smart city will make it an exemplary new age sustainable destination.
“The solution for sustainable energies is a combination of cleaner generation, greater efficiency and a smarter grid. According to International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook report in 2013, Japan and countries in Europe have introduced energy efficiency improvements in buildings. In the US this year, a MoU sets forth an agreement for the states to work together to help automakers sell at least 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) – plug-in electric, battery electric, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles – by 2025. Closer to home, in the Middle East too, the mandate to mitigate energy consumption is being addressed with equal urgency.”
Speakers at the conference include executives from IBM, Intel, HP, Dell, Cisco and a host of regional and international customers. One of the early outcomes of the conference is a concurrence of opinion among the participating experts that energy efficient economies can be shaped through the convergence of IT for achieving smart city solutions.
Chamayou added: “The efficiency economy is born from the convergence of the worlds of IT and energy to link and manage all elements of the smart grid, delivering the greenest energy at the cheapest price and the desired time. At Schneider Electric, we believe it’s time to save, integrate facilities and use decentralised generators to reduce the energy consumed, as well as the cost per kWh and operating expenditure for driving a self-sufficient, net-positive mindset. It is also time to connect by accessing smart, real time data and information, optimise and deliver across integrated systems through open platforms. Schneider Electric plays an important role in connecting people, points and devices to enable insight and action for a sustainable future.”
The exhibition held alongside the conference spans 1,400 square metres and showcases simulated environments of a hotel, telco, bank, hospital, university, EV station and datacenter.
For further details, please visit: www.schneiderelectricmedatacenter.com/2013.
