Schneider Electric has launched its Integrated Platform Operations Centre (IPOC), an intelligence platform for airports that connects energy, assets and operations in one real-time environment – helping airport teams improve performance, strengthen resilience and accelerate decarbonisation.
Passenger traffic is expected to more than double by 2040. Yet, many airports still run 30+ siloed systems across terminal, landside, airside. This lack of integration limits operational efficiency and makes real‑time decision‑making difficult. Moreover, airports face growing pressures including achieving Net Zero targets by 2050, managing rising energy costs that account for 10–15% of airport OPEX.
Built on AVEVA software, IPOC combines energy, automation and industrial intelligence into a single operational platform that could connects most of airport systems, stakeholders and critical processes. Key benefits of the solution include:
- Airport operational excellence: IPOC provides one connected picture across airside, terminal, and landside systems, with operational context across systems and stakeholders to enhance coordination and real-time decision making.
- Passenger experience: The contextualised data helps operators to respond faster to disruptions by supporting earlier issue detection and quicker incident triage.
- Energy and emissions optimisation: IPOC integrates real-time energy data, and related operational data to align consumption closer to demand, without impacting passenger experience.
- Scalability and standardisation: The template-based, object-oriented architecture speeds deployment of standardised assets by creating models once and reusing them across sites. This enables airports to standardise asset models across terminals without cost penalties.
The solution is already demonstrating a real impact at major airports.
At Barcelona El Prat Airport, a similar AVEVA System Platform replaced 20 fragmented systems and scale monitoring from 35,000 to 700,000+ signals. The platform enabled the airport to connect terminal, baggage, HVAC and power plant operations into one unified view, cutting energy and resource waste and improving efficiency throughout the airport’s operations. This was key for supporting major expansions across a new terminal, runway and satellite building, while delivering improved travel experience for over 29 million passengers.
