HANNOVER, Germany), March 17, 2026 — Schneider Electric, a global energy technology leader, will demonstrate how industrial organizations can turn today's toughest operational, energy and workforce challenges into tangible competitive advantage at Hannover Messe 2026 (April 20-24, Hall 13, Booth C34). The booth will bring together Schneider Electric technologies, AVEVA software, ecosystem partners and customers from across the globe to present a clear, actionable playbook for modern industry.
Visitors will experience how electrification, open software-defined automation and digital intelligence converge — strengthened by deep collaborations with Microsoft, HPE, Intel and AWS— to drive faster, measurable impact across five challenge areas shaping industry today: Operational Efficiency; Legacy Drag; the People Paradox and Talent Gap; Data and Cybersecurity; and Energy Efficiency and Electrification.
The booth experience: Five challenges, one playbook
The Schneider Electric booth (Hall 13, C34) is structured around five challenges that define the industrial agenda in 2026. Each zone pairs specific customer pain points with live demonstrations, partner innovations and real-world proof points — beyond aspiration to practical results:
- Operational efficiency: Reducing waste, improving throughput and enabling autonomous decision-making through AI-powered digital twins and real-time edge analytics.
- Legacy drag: Enabling plants to modernize faster with open, interoperable automation that seamlessly coexists with, and gradually upgrades, existing systems.
- People paradox and talent gap: Empowering operators and engineers with AI-assisted tools, immersive digital environments and real-time data that make expertise more accessible and transferable.
- Data and cybersecurity: Delivering cybersecure architectures and unified data pipelines that connect IT and OT safely, enabling trustworthy industrial AI at scale.
- Energy efficiency and electrification: Integrating power, process and data to decarbonize industrial operations, improve energy resilience and support long-term sustainability targets.
Key technology demonstrations
Guided tours throughout the week will showcase Schneider Electric’s latest innovations, including:
Zone 1: Agile, scalable operations
EcoStruxure Automation Expert (EAE) Insights Wall - A live water management use case showing how open, software-defined automation unifies control, data and AI across the plant lifecycle — enabling faster deployment and more flexible long-term operations.
- Agentic AI showcasing EcoStruxure Automation Expert running on an adaptive cloud architecture highlighting software-defined automation decoupled from hardware. Schneider Electric and Microsoft demonstrate how industrial control and automation logic can be developed, simulated and deployed consistently across environments, leveraging Azure Adaptive cloud (cloud and edge) capabilities to enable faster engineering cycles, reuse of automation logic and the ability to simulate and validate changes before deployment.
- Foxboro SDA (European Debut) - The world’s first software-defined DCS, blending Foxboro’s proven reliability with the openness of EcoStruxure Automation Expert. By decoupling software from hardware, Foxboro SDA accelerates modernization, simplifies AI integration and delivers a high availability operator experience — purpose built for hybrid and continuous process industries.
- New Data Center Demo with HPE: Virtualized control transforming the data center into a high availability automation hub. Schneider Electric and HPE demonstrate virtualized control and Open, SDA running real automation workloads on standard servers, proving how Data Centers can become scalable, resilient automation platforms. A first-of-its-kind setup demonstrating scalable, redundant, software-defined automation for next-generation data centers. Perfect for operators modernizing cooling, HVAC or industrial infrastructure for AI-era performance.
Zone 2: Energy efficiency and electrification
- Efficient power operations: Integrated Powertrain - An immersive physical–digital demo inspired by a real BASF deployment, showcasing Schneider Electric’s complete electrical distribution architecture — MV switchgear, transformers, LV panels, UPS, drives and busway, all unified through an ETAP digital twin. Three scenarios play out in real time: a power outage response, an asset health review and a maintenance planning simulation.
- Schneider Electric’s full Altivar drives range, from soft starters and machine drives to medium voltage system drives (ATV6100) and the predictive maintenance enabled Altivar Predict, this demo highlights how intelligent drives can cut energy use by up to 25%, reduce OPEX and support decarbonization goals.
Zone 3: Operational efficiency
Integrated power and process (LNG and Plastic Recycling)—A unified demo showing how integrated power and process systems optimize the full asset lifecycle — from digital twin driven design and integrated project delivery to combined power/process operations and energy aware decision intelligence. Quantified outcomes: up to 20% lower electrical & I&C CapEx, 10% better process energy performance, 15% less unplanned downtime and up to +3 pts profitability.
Zone 4: Empowered workforce
- Dosing machine and agentic AI — A multi-robot demonstration showing how EAE-centric open automation connects a Fricke filling machine, a mobile cobot (Lexium RL with Mobile Robot Expert) and Vision AI inspection in a unified, vendor-agnostic architecture. AVEVA System Platform provides digital continuity across machine and line control, supporting OEE analytics, AI-based anomaly detection and full traceability.
- Data interoperability — A live demonstration of how AVEVA PI System, Asset Information Management and the CONNECT industrial intelligence platform unify OT, engineering technology and IT data into a single, coherent industrial data foundation. Data flows seamlessly through the open platform to cloud partners including Databricks, Microsoft Fabric and Snowflake — enabling AI, machine learning and advanced analytics without custom integrations or data duplication.
Zone 5: Data and secure operations
- Airport baggage handling: Digital Twin and Cybersecurity — A live demonstration of how airports can modernize baggage operations using a digital twin for virtual commissioning and scenario testing, alongside real-time baggage tracking meeting IATA Resolution 753 requirements.
- Controlled indoor environment (HVAC with EAE) — Inspired by a real customer deployment, this demo shows how EcoStruxure Automation Expert enables occupancy-based airflow control in airports and large public buildings — without a traditional PLC. AI-powered infrared detection feeds intelligent speed drives that adapt ventilation in real time, delivering up to 30% overall HVAC energy savings and up to 80% energy savings through optimized free cooling.
- SE advisory services: Industrial digital transformation — Telling the story of Schneider Electric’s own smart factory transformation and the consulting practice it spawned, this demo presents real customer cases in operational efficiency, asset performance management, data connectivity and sustainability and electrification. A hands-on OT cybersecurity demonstration shows what happens when cybersecurity is not properly managed in CPG, water, metals and mining or data center environments — and how it can be prevented.
