Schneider Electric Brings IOT to Agriculture with Network of 4,000 Weather Stations

New Platform Creates First Comprehensive Rural Weather Record, Helping the Agriculture Industry Increase Effienciency and Sustainability.

Rueil-Malmaison (France), December 4, 2015** – Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, today announced it is connecting more than 4,000 disparate rural area Weather Stations to provide a more holistic view of rural weather patterns across the US. Leveraging its big data and IoT-enabled WeatherSentry platform, the company is introducing more precise forecasting to increase efficiency, profitability, and output for the US agricultural industry, including farmers, ranchers and landowners.

The specialized WeatherSentry sensors capture field-level weather and soil conditions that are used to create accurate localized temperature and precipitation forecasts, alongside storm record archives and historical weather logs, to help assess and plan for the weather’s impact on day-to-day agriculture operations. Schneider Electric’s WeatherSentry platform generates more rural area agricultural data than any other provider.

“Despite the many technological advancements made in agriculture in the past century, weather remains a high-cost, high-risk variable that impacts all corners of the industry,” said Ron Sznaider, Senior Vice President, Cloud Services, Schneider Electric. “Taking the guesswork out of weather events allows farmers, ranchers and landowners to make better operational and financial decisions that contribute directly to the sustainability of the operation and the health of their bottom line.”

• Intensified by the impact of climate change, weather events significantly affect crop productivity and health. WeatherSentry’s patented Geographic Information System (GIS) alerting system provide real-time data to allow farmers to plan crop locations, optimize water and soil usage and prioritize activity based on 15-day forecasts – leading to less waste, increased safety and more efficiency.

“We recognize the importance of big data and IoT technologies in mitigating climate change and solving one of the most critical challenges for our global farmers,” said Sznaider. “The Internet of Things will revolutionize how we bring about sustainable food production and we are excited to be at the forefront of delivering the precision technologies that help meet this truly global need.”

• WeatherSentry is proven to be between 40 and 63 percent more accurate than other weather sources. Schneider Electric currently provides weather services to more than 100,000 agricultural industry customers worldwide. The company is actively developing solutions to assess weather impacts on agriculture and is exploring new business models to deploy these solutions across the globe.