Shuzo Kaihori, President and CEO of Yokogawa, led the press conference at the ARC Forum on Feb. 11. Stirring memories of his predecessor’s stated goal of making the company the market leader in automationk, Kaihori noted that it is the global number two supplier of safety integrated systems. He did state that it is still the company’s goal to be the leading automation supplier. It’s just that the target date has slipped. Macro economic trends and internal reorganizations have delayed the plans, I believe.
Technology suppliers continue to develop energy management solutions. Yokogawa joins that trend by partnering with Soteica and its Visual MESA energy management and optimization solution services adding it to its portfolio of plantwide energy management solutions (EMS). Yokogawa has also acquired 44.3% ownership of Soteica Visual MESA to accelerate the joint development of EMS.
Visual MESA is capable of reducing annual energy costs by approximately 2% to 5%. There are approximately 3,400 plants worldwide with $40 million or more in utility costs each year.
“We are very excited about entering into this comprehensive partnership with Yokogawa as it will enable us to dramatically increase the exposure of Visual MESA, our industry leading solution for utilities optimization”, said Oscar Santollani, Soteica Visual MESA’s CEO. He added, “We have found in Yokogawa a partner with whom we share the same work ethics and engineering rigor. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship.”
