Gulf will be a region of growth in 2010

The Gulf is the growth region in 2010 and there is a tremendous potential to work in synergy with a partner like Masdar, according to Jean-Pascal Tricoire, President and Chief Executive Officer at Schneider Electric, the international specialist in energy management. "What we find unique about Masdar is that it is the first time in the world that a city has been designed as carbon neutral from inception. "It is a place for experimentation and a living lab for us to test things with real people in real time," he told Emirates Business after signing an agreement with Masdar. "We believe that there is a great potential in all our markets and that there is great potential in the GCC within our Middle East market," he said. The UAE is the centre for the Gulf and only Saudi Arabia is a separate office in the GCC, he said. Tricoire joined Schneider Electric in 1986. He is President and Chief Executive Officer since 2006. He holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from ESEO in Angers, France, and an MBA from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Lyon, France. Could you elaborate on your agreement and when it all started? One and a half years ago, Masdar came to us and we decided to enter into this strategic agreement in three areas [see box] since we saw many synergies. It is a multi-faceted agreement that covers so many areas. Since energy efficiency is our business and there is an institute in Masdar, we want to participate into the adventure. There is a huge challenge in training specialists who are able to come into a building, do an audit and suggest solutions to cut energy consumption by 30 percent. This is just one aspect. There is also a large challenge of designing buildings in a more sustainable, greener and more efficient way and in auditing existing buildings, retrofitting, revamping and servicing the buildings. On new buildings, we are working on lowering of energy consumption by 80 per cent. Could you explain on how the living lab works and what is the value of your entire agreement with Masdar? It was developed by our local teams in direct contact with Masdar and drawing on Schneider's corporate research. The agreement is now global. We do not yet have any value for this agreement since we have to work out the final figures with them. What percentage does the Gulf represent of your entire markets? In the entire Middle East markets, we do about €700 million (Dh3.72 billion) worth of business. What is different in Abu Dhabi and do you have a team in place? What we find unique about Masdar is that it is the first time in the world that a city has been designed as carbon neutral from inception. It is a place for experimentation and there are many other companies who will come and work alongside us. You will have a real city with people and academics. This is a living lab for us to test things with real people in real time. You can never remove innovation from society since some innovations do not go through because they were not designed for people. Could you elaborate on your EcoStruXure architecture and how it will function in a building context? It unites its expertise in power, datacentres, process and machines, building control, and physical security to optimise energy efficiencies across multiple domains. For example, in new buildings, such as the Schneider HQ, we moved from the current 400kw per hour per sq m area in a traditional Parisian building to 100kw per hour per sq mt area and we can still go down to 80 or 50kw. So will this concept work with Masdar? Yes, we want to develop this even further with Masdar by bringing in new functionalities on this concept and use it on data centres and plants. Every part of the world has its own constraints, cultures and ways of doing business and here in the Middle East we have to adapt to the local specificities. Which are your current markets and could you list them in terms of size? Our biggest market is the US, followed by China, France and many countries in Europe. We believe that R&D should not be in one place but scattered all over the world and close to our customers and the best brains in the world. We maintain our commitment in R&D at five per cent of our investments no matter what the situation and have doubled our size in the last five years. We believe that there is great potential in all our markets including the GCC within our Middle East market. Will you look at any other new partnerships? Yes, we are very active in oil and gas, water, power quality, hotels and also construction with government and private partnerships and looking for new opportunities. We also look at turnkey solutions and are looking at the entire Gulf as a major growth area. What is your strategy for 2010? The world is asking for super reliable energy to hi-tech industries, which is a change from the earlier requirements for safe energy. Our customers are also asking for solar panels on the roof. So, we are looking at a strategy where we can optimise the energy su