It’s been an exciting time here over these last few weeks, as we have shared news with several of our partners around the work that is happening to fast-track digital transformation in the industry and accelerate energy innovation.

First, we shared how our partnerships with Agder Energi and Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) are helping to prepare the grid of tomorrow. We are working with Agder Energi—along with partners Enfo, LOS Energy, Powel AS, and PSC—to develop a new pilot project that will serve as a roadmap for other utilities looking to transform their business models and find ways to introduce new services for customers and new avenues for energy efficiency and sustainability.

With the business group AEE, we are collaborating to develop a new predictive policy tool to support legislative advocacy in energy. Powered by Microsoft Azure integrated cloud-computing services and machine learning, AEE’s PowerSuite online bill-tracking platform can forecast the outcome of state and federal bills, providing valuable insights to help users adjust strategies in real-time to improve the odds of advancing policies for new energy technologies, products and services.

We also shared news from Itron, who recently announced their plans to deliver IoT services, built on Microsoft Azure, to utilities and cities around the world. Azure will be the backbone for Itron Total Outcomes, which provides business outcomes that address utility and smart city challenges in an Outcomes as a Service model to lower costs and improve performance. Itron will also use Cortana Intelligence Suite and Power BI to power critical insights from utilities’ sensors worldwide.

In addition, we announced that we are expanding our relationship with ABB to bring the power of Microsoft Azure and the intelligent cloud to ABB’s industrial IoT collaboration platform. Together, ABB and Microsoft will accelerate digital solutions that improve customers’ productivity by increasing uptime, speed and yield.

As we continue our dialogue on the importance of digital transformation for utilities, an important milestone is the launch of Dynamics 365, our next generation of intelligent business applications. With core business applications (focusing on Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, Project Service Automation, Marketing, and Operations), analytics from Cortana Intelligence and Power BI, and the productivity power of Office 365, this new approach will be the framework that will help grow your business. I invite you to watch this on-demand webcast to learn how your organization can better engage customers, empower employees, optimize operations, and reinvent products and business models with Dynamics 365.

Sincerely,
Larry Cochrane, Director of Industry Technology Strategy
Microsoft Power & Utilities

Cyberattacks: How safe is your grid?

The World Energy Council has recently issued a report stating that cyber threats are increasing across the globe, especially in North America and Europe. Immediate action is needed by all utilities to proactively improve the security on their grids and ensure safe, reliable service for communities. One way to do this is to move payloads into more reliable, trustworthy cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. And, to make Azure an even more powerful cloud platform in terms of security, we just announced that Azure Information Protection is now generally available. This service allows you to share data safely with users within your organization as well as with external customers and partners.

Exelon, TransAlta choose Microsoft to transform in the cloud

With the emergence of more sustainable energy technologies and IoT solutions, utilities see the cloud as part of an organization-wide transformation. Today, we see utilities leading with the cloud as they integrate a variety of technologies and workloads; centralize asset monitoring; and improve real-time business insights, communications and collaboration across the organization—all in a safe and secure environment. Learn how Exelon and TransAlta are driving innovation in the cloud.

On Location: How Microsoft’s Carbon Fee is Empowering Communities in Africa

Learn how Microsoft’s company-wide carbon fee is helping to empower communities in Africa. Our hope is that other like-minded businesses around the world will use carbon finance and choose to invest in carbon offset projects, particularly in developing countries. These projects are changing lives locally while helping address the climate change challenge globally.

Microsoft Ignite: Empowering IT to drive digital transformation

At Microsoft’s annual Ignite technology conference, thousands of IT professionals recently gathered to learn about some of the latest breakthroughs in digital technology that will empower them to drive innovation and transformation in their organizations. At the event, there were exciting new technology innovations Microsoft showcased—spanning productivity, security, intelligence and the cloud—to make it easier to do just that. In addition, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced that Adobe is bringing its Marketing Cloud to Microsoft Azure and making it the preferred digital marketing solution for Dynamics 365 Enterprise.

How leading utilities are innovating with the cloud

Cloud computing offers many compelling opportunities for utilities, including the ability to bring new business models to market quickly, supporting maintenance and operational teams over dispersed geographical areas, as well as offering data storage for smart grid and other storage-intensive applications. We are seeing utilities doing amazing things to transform into digital businesses using Azure. Read their stories.

Microsoft increases European cloud investment to $3 billion, unveils cloud policy recommendations

Microsoft announced it has more than doubled its cloud capacity in Europe in the past year, noting that the company has invested over $3 billion (USD) across Europe to date, and Microsoft intends to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in France, starting in 2017. These new investments in cloud are helping customers to innovate in their industries and move their businesses to the cloud while meeting European data sovereignty, security and compliance needs.

Microsoft Partners with UTSA for Next-Gen Energy Storage

Microsoft recently joined NRG Energy at The University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute (TSERI) to announce new research showing that batteries can help ease the transition to a grid increasingly powered by renewables.

Companies that leverage data consistently outperform ‘laggards’

A new whitepaper Keystone Strategy, which is sponsored by Microsoft, has quantified the difference between enterprise data leaders and the so-called ‘laggards’ who are less mature in their use of data.

The post Microsoft Power and Utilities News – October 2016 installment appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

We’ve been talking about how cloud infrastructure brings significant opportunities to utilities, including increased flexibility, enhanced security and privacy, faster computing, and advanced analytics and business insight, just to name a few. These advancements can be especially beneficial to Utilities looking to meet ever-changing industry regulations and streamline operations.

With the emergence of more sustainable energy technologies and IoT solutions, utilities see the cloud as part of an organization-wide transformation, operating on a common data model that spans the utility, its customers, and reporting to regulatory agencies and government. Today, we see utilities leading with the cloud as they integrate a variety of technologies and workloads; centralize asset monitoring; and improve real-time business insights, communications and collaboration across the organization—all in a safe and secure environment.

Powering up data security and privacy

Take Exelon, for example. This Fortune 100 company and leading U.S. energy provider is showing how it is leading the industry with its journey to the cloud. The company just announced that it will be using Microsoft Office 365 to drive its digital workplace transformation to enhance productivity and collaboration, while saving time, resources and infrastructure costs. Exelon chose Customer Lockbox for Office 365 for its entire workforce of 45,000. Adding Customer Lockbox gives Exelon unprecedented control over its data at all times in Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. This is a critical factor for highly regulated environments where companies need to be able to understand and govern who accesses content during service operations, while still allowing staff to collaborate and work productively anywhere on any device. I encourage you to read more on Ron Markezich’s blog.

Turning data into insight

Another challenge that Utilities are facing is that smart meters and new online tools are creating a lot more data that must be stored, compiled and correlated. Storing all of the data will not add value unless it can be turned into insight. Forward-looking utilities are increasingly focused on big data and advanced analytics, using those capabilities to monitor asset health and enable predictive maintenance, streamline operations and lower operating costs.

One great example of this is the work that Canadian power generator TransAlta is doing to utilize the cloud in order to get deeper insights from the data it collects from its existing SCADA systems. As the number of devices managed by the company has increased over the years, the more data was being collected and the demand for real-time data analytics was significantly increasing. TransAlta needed to be able to add capabilities incrementally and quickly, without adding fixed infrastructure. TransAlta’s choice? Microsoft Azure. The company built a hybrid solution that utilizes its existing infrastructure and the data already being produced, but with a new dimension—rich analysis. The data collected helps TransAlta be more efficient around many critical processes, including equipment maintenance, tracking and reporting on production output to ensure compliance, and billing. The company also saved more than $200,000 in upgrade and licensing costs of its existing solution by migrating to Azure, while gaining features such as security, performance, and redundancy—all critical for utilities. Read TransAlta’s success story here.

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To do that, the industry is looking at ways to harness the power of today’s digital technologies. While the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a powerful force in its ability to connect and draw invaluable insights from the systems, devices and people across the smart energy continuum, what’s truly propelling digital transformation forward is cloud computing. The ubiquity of the cloud is putting the disruptive digital power in the hands of organizations of all sizes, increasing the pace of innovation and competition.

Azure: The trusted cloud for Utilities

Cloud computing offers many compelling opportunities for Utilities, including the ability to bring new business models to market quickly, supporting maintenance and operational teams over dispersed geographical areas, as well as offering data storage for smart grid and other storage-intensive applications. Cloud applications provide scalable computer capacity for applications such as outage management, power trading, and risk analytics. But with these opportunities also comes the need for Utilities to be able to provide a strong level of security.

Microsoft Azure is the cloud platform of choice for leading Utilities. Due to Microsoft’s deep focus on security, Azure is just as safe—if not safer—than most on-premises setups. The Azure trusted cloud platform addresses three important concerns that Utilities face around security, sovereignty, and compliance. Because Azure can integrate with existing on-premises investments, Utilities can get started faster and maintain secure, reliable operation of the electric power system.

We are seeing Utilities doing amazing things to transform into digital businesses using Azure. Here are just a few of their stories:

ABT Power Management

Creating next-generation power management with Azure IoT

To create a more standardized, scalable remote monitoring system that could easily be adapted to a wide range of scenarios, ABT knew that the cloud was the best option. ABT found what it was looking for in Microsoft Azure. The company worked with local IoT/advanced-analytics consultant and Microsoft partner Mariner to create an enhanced remote-monitoring system. ABT is using the new capabilities to provide reports to the customer and real-time alerts to ABT technicians who drive service. The new platform can also improve power management and uptime in virtually every scenario, including 24/7 operations, environments with fully automated, unmanned vehicles, and even installations in extreme hot or cold temperatures. The results: longer battery life, reduced energy consumption, and lower costs.

EnBW

Innovative Utility Deploys Smart Streetlights as Digital Service Stations for the City of the Future

German utility EnBW lights up city streets with enhanced street lamps that incorporate digital service stations where sensors collect environmental data, drivers can charge their electric vehicles, Internet users can connect, and individuals can contact emergency dispatchers. The Microsoft Azure cloud facilitates the necessary data management and analytics, and Microsoft Services helps EnBW bring further innovation to smart streetlights and profit from it.

Energias de Portugal (EDP)

Cloud Microsoft Help EPAL and EDP to increase levels of efficiency

Learn how the Microsoft Azure Cloud technology allows EPAL and EDP to access and share information in real time, allowing them to reduce costs and be more efficient in the water supply and electricity industries.

juwi AG, juwi O&M

The cloud gives this renewables developer a glimpse into the future—and that’s a competitive advantage

For juwi, a major developer of renewable energy projects worldwide, knowing the current status of its wind facilities is no longer enough. It needs to know their future status, too. And with Resolto Prognos on Microsoft Azure, it does. juwi uses the Prognos predictive analytics solution to identify major plant failures before they occur, so it can buy parts and schedule and implement maintenance at lower cost—and improve uptime at the same time. The result can reduce costs dramatically for customers.

Sogn og Fjordane Energi

Powering Norwegian communities with smart energy

Norwegian power company Sogn og Fjordane Energi (SFE) is determined to stay at the forefront of energy innovation. Split into three independent divisions—production, grid, and retail—the company wanted a technology platform that would help improve efficiency and competitiveness. So the company teamed with eSmart Systems, an energy management system vendor and expert in big data solutions for the IT and energy sectors, to connect sensors and meters to the cloud for real-time and predictive analytics. SFE chose a small community in a fjord for a pilot project called “Smart Valley,” which connects every building—including homes, schools, and health centers—to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and the Azure Internet of Things Suite. This will enable SFE to improve performance with both real-time response and proactive maintenance.

As you can see, today’s forward-thinking Utilities are taking advantage of the intelligent cloud to drive real transformational change. They are changing how they deliver personal customer experiences; how they reimagine business processes and optimize operations to be more agile and responsive; how they develop new services-based business models in order to deliver significant new results; and how they build a more open, connected, and trusted workforce and ecosystem.

And this change not only enables them to survive, but to thrive in today’s new smart energy continuum.

LinkedIn: Larry Cochrane

The post How leading Utilities are innovating with the cloud appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

It’s been an exciting time here at Microsoft, as we recently returned from Hannover Messe 2016, which marked a breakthrough for Industry 4.0. At the event, we demonstrated the work we are doing around our Smart Energy Continuum. We talked about how energy management and energy efficiency are closely tied and represent one of the fastest growing areas in industry, second only to manufacturing operations. Energy management spans the continuum from smart buildings to smart factories to connected manufacturing operations to electric utilities and the efficient management of the electric power system.

The convergence of IoT, advanced analytics, and cloud computing is paving the way for a whole new ecosystem for energy management: The Smart Energy Continuum. New data acquisition and forecasting solutions for energy capacity, load forecasting, and flexible energy resources are providing unprecedented visibility and solutions for active participation of consumers in generation and consumption decisions.

Emerging advanced analytics and control solutions are also enabling the entry of new classes of participants in the Smart Energy Continuum, such as Smart Factories and Smart Buildings. At Hannover Messe, we showed a holistic view of our energy management strategy and energy management analytics solutions, showing how the Smart Energy Continuum spans across generation, to commercial and industrial, to consumer. We were surrounded in the booth with our Microsoft Consulting Services team, and key partners whose showcases extended our energy management/energy efficiency story.

We also shared some exciting stories of digital business transformation that we are driving with our customers including EnBW, JTC, and Otis Elevator Company/United Technologies Corp., as well as the work we are doing with energy partner ICONICS to help power their new IoT Gateway Suite. You can read more about these innovative stories and showcases in our newsletter below.

I also encourage you to take a look at my new blog that talks more about Microsoft’s Smart Energy Continuum approach. You can also visit our Hannover Messe press site and YouTube channel for all of the news, stories and highlights from the event.

In other exciting news, the Cortana Intelligence Suite has added a new on-premises template for forecasting energy demands to help utilities and energy companies allocate resources and make strategic decisions. The Energy Demand Forecasting Template with SQL Server R Services allows a simple deployment of a machine learning-based solution for energy demand forecasting within on-premises infrastructure. It takes advantage and extends the capability of SQL Server already in deployment. Read more in our blog here.

Sincerely,

Larry Cochrane, Director of Industry Technology Strategy

Microsoft Power & Utilities

The new world of smart energy in today’s digital era

At this year’s Hannover Messe industrial fair, where an important theme was “integrated energy—the energy system of the future,” we shared a holistic view of our energy management strategy and energy management solutions across the smart energy continuum. With our partners like ICONICS, we demonstrated how our technologies like Microsoft Azure IoT services and the Cortana Analytics Suite are designed to take full advantage of IoT and make it quicker and easier to monitor existing assets to improve efficiencies, drive operational performance to enable innovation, and use advanced data analytics capabilities for intelligent action.

From airplane engines to street lights, transportation is becoming more intelligent

Traffic jams and pollution will begin to ease in some cities as they install new street lamps built by SM!GHT smart.city.light, a unit of German electric utilities company EnBW. SM!GHT uses Microsoft technology for an Azure cloud-based network of intelligent streetlights that not only provide electric-vehicle charging stations, Wi-Fi and SOS buttons, but can also sense pollution, noise, temperature, humidity and traffic congestion. All that data gets analyzed in real time using Azure Stream Analytics and Machine Learning and relayed to city planners or traffic control systems to help divert or slow down drivers, unsnarling the commute and improving neighborhoods’ air quality.

All around us, smarter buildings provide energy-efficient, environmentally friendly workplaces

We are in a new era of digital business, a transformation that includes smarter buildings that reduce energy costs and deliver greener cities, while also surrounding people in safety and comfort, helping them to be the most productive they can be. Smart buildings not only use the Internet of Things and cloud-based systems that give new visibility and insight into equipment and energy status, but are now beginning to leverage Azure machine learning to pre-emptively identify equipment that might fail. Buildings that were once constructed as system silos where air conditioning, elevators and lighting were planned and managed separately, with limited to no consideration of the impact of one on the other – are now being redesigned in a more holistic way. Microsoft customers like JTC are now using these new integrated solutions to gain improved building management insights that, for example, can result in tweaks to air conditioning systems leading to more efficient air flow and reduced cooling costs.

How manufacturers are creating the digital, intelligent and predictive factory

At Hannover Messe, Microsoft showcased how Jabil and other companies, including Fujitsu, NEC, Carl ZEISS and TRUMPF, are among those working with Microsoft to reshape the way they do business in the era of an intelligence revolution. These companies are using Microsoft technology including Azure, Azure Machine Learning, Azure IoT Suite, the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Power BI, SQL Server, Windows 10 and Office 365 to create digital factories, developing new ecosystems of intelligence that improves the way we work and live. With these solutions, and others, it’s clear the digital manufacturing transformation is underway, using machine learning and intelligence.

ICONICS Introduces Its IoT Gateway Suite with Microsoft Azure at Hannover Messe 2016

ICONICS recently announced its new IoT Gateway Suite and enhanced integration with the next generation of Microsoft Azure cloud platform and services. The ICONICS IoT Gateway Suite communicates with Azure applications using the most popular transport protocols. Once the IoT Gateway is online, it connects to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub so that it can authenticate, transmit and receive data. Acting as a secure message broker, the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub allows for remote device management, provisioning and configuration. The real power of IoT gateways is in the implementation of low-cost hardware devices that can be placed in remote locations or just about anywhere there is information to be sent to Azure.

Otis Elevator and UTC Expand Relationship with Microsoft to Develop State-of-the-Art Digital Solutions

Otis Elevator Company and its parent company, United Technologies Corp., are exploring opportunities with Microsoft for a strategic alliance to accelerate development of digital solutions for smart building equipment, such as elevators, to improve energy efficiency and make people more productive. The alliance has potential to use Microsoft technology to extend the benefits of connectivity and remote monitoring.

Powering up the smart—and secure—utility with the cloud

We recently shared with you the significant enhancements Microsoft has made to our platform to help you address security threats and protect your business, including our new Microsoft Azure Active Directory Identity Protection service that gives you an unprecedented level of security for your cloud identities. And the response was overwhelming. We received a lot of interest on this topic, proving just how important security is to us all, and that importance only continues to grow in today’s connected and online world.

EDP: Leading digital transformation with Microsoft Office 365

Energias de Portugal, S.A (EDP) ranks among Europe’s major operators in the energy sector, as well as being one of the largest energy operators of the Iberian Peninsula, the largest Portuguese industrial group, and the 3rd largest producer of wind energy. The company has a long history of innovation and takes great pride in its heritage that looks, above all, toward the future. That future is all about growth, innovation, and improved productivity. To help the company work further to that goal, EDP looked to long-term partner Microsoft to help them create a new way to work that would drive better collaboration and more efficient operations. And that new way of working is empowered by Office 365.

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Energias de Portugal, S.A (EDP) ranks among Europe’s major operators in the energy sector, as well as being one of the largest energy operators of the Iberian Peninsula, the largest Portuguese industrial group, and the 3rd largest producer of wind energy. The company has a long history of innovation and takes great pride in its heritage that looks, above all, toward the future. That future is all about growth, innovation, and improved productivity.

To help the company work further to that goal, EDP looked to long-term partner Microsoft to help them create a new way to work that would drive better collaboration and more efficient operations. And that new way of working is empowered by Office 365.

According to Vergilio Rocha, Director of Information Systems at EDP, prior to Office 365, collaboration across teams was a cumbersome process. A team member would produce a document, send it to a colleague, who would then correct or edit it and send it back. This generated a series of time-consuming interactions that took people away from core tasks and priorities.

Today, with Office 365 and SharePoint online, EDP teams can all work on the same document in a collaborative, seamless way. Skype for Business allows teams to take advantage of the power of video conferencing right from the convenience of their own computers, wherever they are in the world, instead of gathering in one location.

Rocha says that the future at EDP is all about technology; using the latest solutions to design scenarios that allow people to do things differently and more efficiently. This creates competitive advantage that allows the company to achieve better results in a faster and more productive way, while helping to make the culture more dynamic and pioneering.

As EDP continues its strong commitment to working responsibly for people, their communities, and the environment, we are pleased that Office 365 is helping to power the company’s leadership, collaboration and innovation.

Follow us on Twitter: @MSUtilities

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Some people may have noticed the Microsoft product flags at half-mast on Monday. This is in memory of my great friend and Managing Director of Worldwide Power and Utilities, Mr. Jon Arnold. Jon passed away Thursday, May 14, 2015 and services were held Sunday, May 17. Jon Arnold was a tremendous person with a huge heart. He was a dedicated, caring father and a family man. Jon is survived by his wife Magelda, daughter Sierra, son Brice (and Andrea, former wife).

Jon was a close friend, to me and many, many others. He has been a friend, a mentor and more for all of us. He touched so very many people. One of my favorite memories was calling Jon from Kala Patar by Mount Everest Base Camp. It was 3am! Jon took the call and celebrated my accomplishment of summiting the 18, 500ft peak. That was the way he was.

Jon was also a thought leader in the industry. He was genuine, caring, energetic, ethical, and hard-working. He was a fantastic Microsoft ambassador. Jon was a featured speaker at government hearings and industry conferences, and during his career he testified on behalf of the industry before Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the White House Y2K Power Group on utility technology issues. Jon has been featured in media interviews with The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, MSNBC, FOX, Voice of America and many worldwide utility trade and technology magazines. Jon loved being in the limelight and enjoyed speaking at the National Press Club, as well as appearing on local, national, and international radio/television. Jon was even named as one of Greentech Media’s top influencers in the Smart Grid market. Jon was a prolific blogger, authoring over 330 Microsoft Power and Utilities blogs in the past few years.

Jon mastered his media skills at McGraw Hill where he was editor-in-chief for the energy magazines. Jon ran the EnergyIT and Energy Business & Technology magazines which were published nine times a year by Platts. This was the most widely read trade magazine in the energy utility industry, with a controlled circulation of over 38,000.

Jon was also CIO for the Edison Electric Institute for 10 years prior to joining Microsoft. Jon was responsible for IT at the Washington, DC-based Edison Electric Institute, including design, implementation, purchasing, recruitment and customer communications. Visiting EEI with Jon was nothing short of a class reunion!

Jon started up and ran the Power and Utilities industry team at Microsoft for 10 years. I was lucky enough to work with him for the past eight. He was great at things which were not my forte, and vice versa. He supported partners from new innovative startups, to the most influential in the industry. He was an unending advocate for not only large corporations, but small companies as well. He loved what he did. He did everything with passion, energy and put a lot of thought into all he did.

Jon will be dearly missed. We wish strength and patience to all he left behind. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and all of his loved ones.

In agreement with the wishes of his family, I have created a memorial fund through the American Heart Association. Jon passed away from a heart attack. The selection of the American Heart Association also complements Jon’s dedication to the support of people worldwide: Jon was Director of IT for the American Red Cross from 1986 through 1990.

Please help us make a difference by contributing in memory of Jon. Whatever you can give will be appreciated, and everything helps. Thank you for your support.

To make a donation online, visit the American Heart Association.

To send a donation: Make all checks payable to: American Heart/American Stroke Association Mail to: Larry Cochrane 61 Cascade Key, Bellevue, WA 98006-1023

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