University Hospital Southampton transforms ageing infrastructure into connected future-ready estate with Schneider Electric
Posted by: electime 11th November 2026
Schneider Electric is working with University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) to transform its estate management capabilities through a connected energy and asset-management infrastructure.
As one of the UK’s largest acute healthcare providers, UHS provides critical care and specialist services to a population of 1.9 million people across Southampton and South Hampshire.
With much of its electrical and mechanical infrastructure dating back to the 1970s, UHS faced the combined challenges of managing a significant maintenance backlog, planning an anticipated estate expansion, and progressing towards the NHS’ Net Zero 2040 targets.
To address these overlapping challenges, UHS worked in close partnership with Schneider Electric to modernise its infrastructure, introducing a connected data-driven architecture based on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure platform. This included Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ Power Monitoring Expert and EcoStruxure™ Asset Advisor, alongside Planon Workplace Insights and connected medium-and low-voltage electrical distribution equipment.
Real-time asset intelligence drives maintenance savings
Together, the technologies give the estates and facilities team near real-time visibility of critical asset condition, enabling a shift from reactive to proactive, condition-based maintenance. Data insights are helping to improve backlog prioritisation, fault detection, and root-cause analysis, reducing maintenance periodicity.
Growth through data-driven planning as UHS expands
UHS is currently planning a 50,000 square metre extension of its estate to provide new clinical spaces and beds. A key element of this is ensuring that the electrical systems can support increased demand without compromising resilience. Rather than having to rely on baseline models or assumptions, the Trust was able to use live operational data to undertake detailed analysis of load profiles to guide its capital investments in substation upgrades. This led to greater confidence in its decisions and enabled it to more accurately target investment for maximum return.
“We’re already seeing significant operational and efficiency gains as a result of our partnership with Schneider Electric,” said David Jones, Director of Estates, Facilities and Capital Development at the University Hospital of Southampton. “Our work together has resulted in substantial cost savings and enabled us to divert resources back to where they matter the most: clinical services and the provision of excellent patient care.”
“Digitalising and connecting our operations has been integral to modernising and planning for the future, ensuring that we have resilient power networks in place which are able to scale with demand,” he added.
“We’re immensely proud to be partnering with UHS on its journey to create a smart, sustainable hospital network and to support plans for expansion,” said Alice Williams, VP Digital Energy UK&I at Schneider Electric. “Digitalisation doesn’t just offer efficiency benefits: it’s also a critical piece of the puzzle to deliver on hospital infrastructure that is safe, functional and scalable. Together, we’re setting a benchmark for the future of healthcare infrastructure.”
