1. An electrostatic precipitator, comprising: a plurality of configurable parallel and serial precipitator zones; a plurality of high-voltage supply units each assigned to one of the plurality of zones; a plurality of auxiliary functional units each assigned to one of the plurality of zones; and a control entity having a server component and a client module, the control entity incorporating different software modules allowing access to data of the electrostatic precipitator, the high-voltage supply units, and the auxiliary functional units so data can be visually displayed, stored or used as a basis for optimizing the electrostatic precipitator operation, wherein the electrostatic precipitator, the high-voltage supply units and the auxiliary functional units are set-up via the server component of the control entity, by the software modules, as objects having characteristic properties and characteristic methods, where the objects are accessible by the client modules via data interfaces as information present only in the server component.