We embed sustainability into heart of electrical and infrastructure strategy: Schneider

In today's energy and industrial landscape, the asset performance management has become very critical. There is more focus on the digital infrastructure today. APM is bridging operational performance and sustainability.

Ramesh Kumar Jha, VP, Field Services, Greater India, Schneider Electric, tells us more. Excerpts from an interview: 

DQ: Why is asset performance management becoming increasingly critical in today’s energy and industrial landscape?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: Asset performance management (APM) has emerged as a cornerstone of business continuity

in today’s rapidly evolving energy and industrial ecosystem. As industries accelerate toward electrification, decentralized energy systems, and greater automation, the reliability of electrical and mechanical assets becomes mission-critical. 

Digital infrastructure now underpins everything from process safety and supply chain continuity to ESG compliance. Even minor asset failures can cascade into significant operational, financial, and reputational setbacks.

What makes APM even more indispensable is its role in bridging operational performance and sustainability. Traditional time-based maintenance methods fall short in a landscape that demands real-time responsiveness and energy optimization. 

APM, when driven by data and analytics, provides continuous visibility into asset health, enables early fault detection, and empowers organizations to align operations with long-term efficiency and decarbonization goals. In short, it transforms maintenance from a reactive cost center into a strategic growth enabler.

DQ: What are the common challenges industries face when adopting proactive asset management, and how can they overcome them?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: Industries, especially those with legacy assets and manual processes, often face significant hurdles in adopting proactive asset management. These include fragmented data ecosystems, aging infrastructure, and a workforce that may not be equipped for digital tools. 

Many organizations still operate on calendar-based maintenance, which can lead to excessive downtime, reactive firefighting, or over-maintenance. This is further complicated by a global shortage of skilled maintenance professionals, especially in high-voltage electrical and energy-intensive domains.

Overcoming these challenges requires a structured, phased approach. It starts with building a digital foundation—digitizing assets, installing condition-monitoring sensors, and establishing a single source of truth through connected platforms. Equally important is fostering internal buy-in through change management and skills enablement. 

By aligning asset strategies with specific business KPIs—such as reducing unplanned downtime, improving energy efficiency, or ensuring audit readiness—organizations can accelerate their transition and unlock the full value of proactive, predictive operations. 

DQ: How do you see the role of predictive and proactive maintenance evolving across industries in the next five years?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: In the next five years, predictive and proactive maintenance will move from being a best practice to a baseline expectation across critical sectors. With advancements in IoT, machine learning, and cloud infrastructure, organizations will have the ability to perform real-time diagnostics and forecast asset behavior with greater accuracy than ever before. 

Maintenance will shift from being calendar-driven to being need-driven—performed only when specific parameters or risk thresholds are triggered.

Beyond efficiency, this evolution is closely tied to broader enterprise imperatives. Predictive maintenance will help businesses extend asset life, reduce energy usage, and support emissions reduction—critical levers in achieving ESG and net-zero goals. 

It will also influence capital planning, helping leaders decide when to retrofit, upgrade, or decommission assets based not just on age, but on real-time performance and environmental impact. In this way, predictive maintenance will evolve from a reliability tool into a strategic pillar for sustainable, future-ready operations. 

DQ: Can you walk us through Schneider Electric’s asset management service portfolio—EcoFit, EcoConsult, and EcoCare—and how each uniquely contributes to infrastructure resilience?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: Our services portfolio is structured to support customers across the full lifecycle of their electrical infrastructure, from design and modernization to performance optimization. 

EcoConsult focuses on the early stages—providing strategic consulting, digital audits, and risk assessments that help clients plan resilient, compliant, and future-proof systems. It is particularly valuable when designing for energy transition, renewable integration, or load growth.

EcoFit addresses asset longevity through modernization and retrofitting. It allows organizations to bring legacy equipment up to current safety, efficiency, and digitalization standards—minimizing waste and avoiding full system replacements. 

EcoCare, our premium membership offering, enables ongoing performance management through 24/7 monitoring, AI-powered predictive diagnostics, remote troubleshooting, and expert technical support. Together, these three services form a robust ecosystem that ensures uptime, reduces OPEX, and builds infrastructure that’s adaptable to changing energy demands.

DQ: How are technologies like AI, IoT, and data analytics embedded into Schneider Electric’s service offerings to deliver intelligent, real-time asset insights?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: Technology is embedded into every layer of our service architecture, enabling a shift from reactive maintenance to real-time, predictive decision-making. IoT sensors embedded in critical equipment—switchgear, UPS systems, drives—continuously track key health parameters. 

These are connected to cloud platforms where machine learning models analyze trends, detect anomalies, and issue maintenance recommendations well in advance of failures.

Our AI tools are trained on one of the most extensive electrical asset datasets in the world, allowing for highly accurate predictions tailored to specific industrial environments. 

Digital twins add another layer of intelligence, enabling teams to simulate asset behavior and understand “what-if” scenarios before making operational changes. These tools help customers not only improve uptime and asset reliability but also make smarter decisions about energy use, risk mitigation, and long-term sustainability planning.

DQ: How does Schneider enable India Inc. to meet their net-zero and ESG goals more effectively?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: We support Indian enterprises by embedding sustainability into the heart of their electrical and infrastructure strategy. Our services enable businesses to electrify operations, improve energy efficiency, and reduce waste—directly contributing to their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions targets. 

From modernizing legacy systems to integrating renewable energy sources and microgrids, we provide end-to-end support for decarbonized operations.

Additionally, our ESG consulting offerings—including materiality assessments, sustainability reporting, and digital auditing—help organizations align their disclosures with global standards. Through localized expertise and globally benchmarked tools, we ensure Indian businesses can meet their regulatory and stakeholder expectations while maintaining cost efficiency. 

Our circularity-based approach, where assets are upgraded or repurposed rather than replaced, reinforces our commitment to sustainable industrial growth.

DQ: How is Schneider Electric preparing clients for the transition to digital-first asset management in traditionally manual sectors?

Ramesh Kumar Jha: We understand that digital transformation in traditionally manual industries must be both non-disruptive and scalable. Our approach begins by digitizing existing infrastructure—embedding smart sensors, deploying edge-connected gateways, and enabling real-time visibility through cloud dashboards. 

These foundational upgrades are designed to be plug-and-play, minimizing operational downtime while maximizing data value from day one.

Crucially, we support this transformation with change management, training, and continuous expert engagement. Digital twins help teams simulate asset behavior and preserve institutional knowledge, especially as experienced staff retire. 

By simplifying asset intelligence and aligning it with day-to-day operations, we empower organizations to move confidently into a digital-first model—reducing unplanned downtime, improving decision-making, and future-proofing their asset ecosystem.