Dive Brief:
- Schneider Electric on Tuesday released a service called EcoCare for Building Management Systems to help facilities managers improve maintenance, operations and occupant comfort.
- Digital monitoring can improve energy savings 25%, reduce occupant complaints 60%, improve system operational efficiency 30% and reduce system downtime 45% compared to traditional operations, the company claims.
- EcoCare for BMS combines continuous monitoring, AI-driven analytics and technical support, both remote and on-site, to help facility teams address issues before they disrupt operations, the company says.
Dive Insight:
The launch of EcoCare is part of Schneider’s efforts to scale its building and power management systems and service models across a range of facilities types and sizes. The new service follows the launch of the company’s energy management and IOT automation platform EcoStruxure Building Activate in 2024 and its Edge AI enhanced room controllers in 2025.
The digital tools stem from the company’s research into AI deployments and their impacts on building operations.
“We’ve seen the significant impact of leveraging AI when it comes to delivering HVAC optimization and efficiency,” Sadiq Syed, senior vice president of building and power automation at Schneider Electric, told Facilities Dive. “By leveraging pattern recognition, occupancy levels and usage, and deploying AI models on it, we see significant improvements in energy efficiency and savings.
Syed said the efficiencies that facilities gain differ based on the building type and the age of the assets, but they’re nevertheless measurable — “ranging between a low of 5% to as high as upwards of 20%,” he said. “They’re variable factors, but [we’ve] seen AI helping customers drive efficiency, especially around HVAC.”
In its announcement about EcoCare, the company says the service is timely because complex facilities like those in the healthcare and higher education spaces are increasingly electrifying, becoming more energy-intensive and sensitive to downtime, so facility teams benefit from continuous digital monitoring.
"The old model of reactive maintenance just doesn't work anymore," Tyler Haak, vice president of services and digital buildings in the U.S for Schneider Electric, said in a statement. "Facility teams are expected to keep buildings running, manage issues as they arise and do more with fewer resources, [so] they need real-time visibility and predictive insights to stay ahead.”
By helping teams identify issues earlier, the monitoring helps them reduce downtime and keep the HVAC at a comfortable level, “delivering better experiences for the people who rely on those buildings,” Haak said.
Syed said the advantages of digital monitoring become clear to facilities managers once they’ve worked with it.
“They have been in the weeds, working day in and day out,” he said. “But when they start embracing [data], they’ll soon realize the ability of viewing and [centrally] managing the entire portfolio, versus sending trucks or sending people. They are short of those people, [so] visibility to data and having connected assets is so powerful.”
