To address these growing challenges, energy and resources leaders are increasingly turning to digital technology solutions. By leveraging AI-driven insights and cloud-based operational technology (OT) systems, energy operators can optimize grid management, strengthen cybersecurity, and respond faster to operational inefficiencies. 

In the area of predictive maintenance, AI can analyze historical equipment performance and environmental data to forecast potential equipment failures, helping utilities avoid costly downtime while enabling uninterrupted service. For example, JERA developed an AI-based predictive detection application that provides everyday remote monitoring of power plants, enabling early detection of equipment issues and reducing unplanned outages.

“By enabling a 24-hours-a-day remote monitoring service, we will be able to provide value by preventing potential problems and by improving power plant availability through quick identification of problem causes. DPP’s primary role is to contribute to the stable supply of energy and sustainable power plant operations through transformations that utilize digital technology and data.”

Hiroaki Kamei, Executive Officer of the Digital Power Plant Promotion Group, O&M Engineering Strategy Division

This scenario provides a glimpse into the many ways AI is quickly becoming one of the most impactful tools for energy organizations and workers. Across the utility workforce—from engineering and grid operations to customer service and finance—employees are also seeing increased productivity with generative AI technology as they use tools like Microsoft Copilot to streamline tasks such as drafting emails, summarizing meetings, conducting research, analyzing data, generating manuals, and preparing presentations. This enables them to focus more on high-value work that fuels industry-wide growth and collaboration, accelerating the energy transition. 

Beyond task productivity, generative AI is transforming how utilities manage operations at scale. For example, National Grid is leveraging Microsoft Copilot and Azure to assist with automation, document management, and report generation across regulatory, finance, and legal operations, helping the company drive efficiencies in its mission to achieve net-zero goals. According to Shannon Soland, Chief Technology Officer at National Grid, “Microsoft Copilot is really going to be a difference maker for National Grid,” allowing the company to innovate rapidly with AI-powered solutions.  

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Enhancing cloud security with AI

AI is not just a tool for optimization—it’s becoming essential for energy security and operational resilience. As energy organizations modernize their systems and integrate new technologies to streamline workflows and improve operations, there’s a growing emphasis around overall security posture. That is why Microsoft is working closely with energy customers and partners to provide intelligent and scalable cybersecurity solutions that help set the stage for successful AI adoption and continued innovation—so they can focus on what matters most: meeting the world’s growing energy needs while ensuring a secure, sustainable, and affordable supply.

Solutions like Microsoft Copilot for Security are enabling energy organizations to identify threats faster, strengthen risk mitigation strategies, and respond to incidents more efficiently. For example, Uniper, a leader in the energy transition, has integrated Copilot for Security to manage the growing number of phishing attempts and hacker attacks they face as an operator of critical infrastructure.

“Copilot for Security immediately flags incidents, allowing us to identify risks up to twice as fast, assess them right away, and take the appropriate action.”

Damian Bunyan, Chief Information Officer of Uniper 

Routine security tasks, which used to take hours or days, are now handled in minutes through AI and automation, improving security response times and helping Uniper focus on their broader goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040. 

We’ve embedded Copilot directly into the Microsoft Security stack, allowing energy customers to tap into built-in AI capabilities and industry-leading threat intelligence—regardless of the solutions they use. It’s all part of our effort to empower human defenders with AI tools and capabilities that provide an advantage against some of the energy industry’s greatest challenges.  

Microsoft partnerships help the energy industry embrace the future of work

Supercharging human ingenuity with advanced technology is just one way to drive a more sustainable, reliable, affordable, and secure energy supply. Another critical piece is global collaboration and partnership.

Microsoft’s collaboration with leading global systems integrators (GSIs) is driving significant innovation in the energy sector. Partners like Accenture, Avanade, EY, and PwC helping utilities globally leverage AI and Azure-powered technologies to modernize and enhance productivity. Accenture and Avanade, early adopters of Microsoft Copilot, are accelerating value by delivering intelligent, industry-specific solutions that empower workforce. Similarly, EY and PwC are working closely with Microsoft to provide cutting-edge tools that enable energy providers to streamline operations and strengthen their digital transformation strategies. 

Among Microsoft’s key collaborators is IFS, which plays a crucial role in transforming asset management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) for energy companies. Exelon, the largest energy delivery company in North America, is leveraging IFS technology to improve operational visibility and streamline the management of its extensive asset base across six utility businesses. According to Rob Biagiotti, Vice President of Assets and Core System Projects at Exelon, the company chose IFS for its cloud-based, agile platform that could meet the evolving needs of their business. By enabling Exelon to efficiently manage the full lifecycle of assets and integrate with their existing technology, IFS is helping them achieve their strategic goals of delivering reliable, affordable energy to over 10 million customers.  

GE Vernova has developed a solution underpinned with advanced AI models to improve wildfire risk mitigation, with their solution available on Azure to provide sophisticated analysis and better decision-making for environmental planning and response. Meanwhile, Schneider Electric’s DERMS EcoStruxure platform, deployed on Azure, is advancing distributed energy resource management, increasing grid flexibility and efficiency. This platform has been successfully implemented at Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), where it’s driving significant value by optimizing distributed energy resources and improving grid management across their network.

These are just a few of the many partners Microsoft collaborates with across the energy sector. The scale and complexity of today’s energy challenges make partnership essential; no single organization can drive this transformation alone. By working together, we can accelerate innovation and ensure a secure, sustainable, and resilient energy future. 

Sharing industry insights at Enlit Europe 2024 

We are excited to discuss the transformational power of technology and share new AI innovations with our partners as the AI sponsor of Enlit Europe 2024 at Fiera Milano di Rho in Milan, Italy. This opportunity enables us to deepen our existing partnerships and forge new ones with energy organizations from around the world. The event will run from October 22 to 24, 2024 and will be attended by 15,000 guests, including over 700 international exhibitors and 500 speakers from energy industry leaders.  

The Microsoft Energy and Resources Industry team will attend Enlit Europe 2024 to exchange insights on new technologies, discuss solutions to industry challenges, and highlight key achievements with our industry partners. On day two of the conference, we will feature Microsoft Copilot demos at the Digitalization Hub, offering a firsthand look at how AI can transform the way you work. In addition to demonstrating the benefits of Copilot, our team will be featured on several panel discussions and presentations on critical topics for the global power and utilities community.

Continuing to innovate across the energy sector with transformative technologies 

As technology advancements open doors for energy solutions, we’re eager to continue partnering with industry leaders to challenge the status quo with innovative approaches to some of the world’s toughest energy dilemmas. For many organizations, this begins by shifting internal conversations and establishing a data-driven culture that empowers people to solve problems using data. That’s why we work with leaders across the industry to build digital transformation strategies and modernize data management approaches so they can get the most value from their data through advanced AI and automation capabilities.

Explore this ever-evolving world with us at Enlit Europe 2024 and engage with the leading minds at the forefront of industrial change. Don’t miss out on the critical discourses, thought-provoking panels, and our Microsoft Copilot Hub demo station, where you can learn more about making the most of this everyday AI assistant in your organization. Join the Microsoft Energy and Resources Industry team as we bring new solutions to light and exchange ideas with energy pioneers from the world over. We hope to see you in Milan.  

Learn more about Microsoft for energy and resources 

• Visit the Microsoft for energy and resources page.
• Read the Microsoft Industry Blogs: Energy and resources to learn about critical actions for energy transition.
• Listen to the podcast AI for power and energy with Laurent Boinot where a Microsoft power and utilities leader discusses the intersection of AI and energy infrastructure.
• Read a Microsoft leader’s interview and gain perspective on how AI is a driving force in accelerating the energy transition.
• Read this new article on Power Change: Applying GenAI for Strategic Transformation in Utility Analytics.
• Watch our on-demand webinar, Rethinking cybersecurity in a renewable-powered energy system.
• Learn about Microsoft Security solutions and sign up for news and insights from Microsoft Security.

¹ European Commission, Future EU power systems: renewables’ integration to require up to 7 times larger flexibility, June 26, 2023.

2 Enisa, Cyber Europe tests the EU Cyber Prepardness in the Energy Sector, June 20, 2024.

The post Enlit Europe 2024: Rewiring the energy industry’s operational core with cloud and AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

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A growing need to transform security

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) at power companies know this reality well. They’re tasked with managing a complicated portfolio while protecting against cyber risks from both insiders and nation-state actors. Left unresolved, these challenges create a ripple effect across the enterprise and lead to issues like:   

• Increasingly complex environments: Widespread digital adoption combined with evolving customer preferences, decentralized energy generation, and a changing workforce are driving utility providers to rethink their services and business models to help increase flexibility and maintain a resilient grid. In a recent survey conducted by Guidehouse and Public Utilities Fortnightly, 61% of respondents agreed that increasing flexibility to improve energy system resilience is the highest priority outcome for utility investments today.²
• Tool fatigue: Many power companies work with hundreds of disparate management tools that are costly to manage and limited in cross-visibility. These tools must be integrated and maintained by teams with the right skillsets. As tools are added or replaced and personnel come and go, companies face the inevitable costs of re-skilling and new integrations.
• Technical debt: While many utilities are designing new solutions in support of energy transition and the grid of the future, they still rely heavily on legacy infrastructures that carry significant tech debt. These legacy systems increase cybersecurity and operational risks as well as operational expenses through extended support costs, timelines, and integration complexities. Research shows companies pay an additional 10 to 20% to address tech debt on top of project base costs.³  

Modernizing infrastructure is costly and not easily adaptable as the risk landscape evolves. In fact, 59% of cybersecurity teams identify integration of legacy operational technology (OT) and modern information technology (IT) systems as their biggest challenge to securing OT.⁴ If you’re a CISO, how do you solve the challenge of securing both IT and OT against modern and fast-changing threats? 

The answer is to work with technology partners who not only understand threat actors around the world, but who also recognize the business risks and operational concerns across the industry. 

Increasing security and efficiency without sacrificing value 

With a unified security stack running on the Microsoft Cloud, utilities can significantly reduce the number of tools they manage every day for lower costs, time-savings, and better insight into IT and OT environments.  

For example, Turkish energy provider Enerjisa Üretim partnered with Senkron.Energy Digital Services to build Senkron ROC, a remote operations center that represents a critical piece of becoming cloud-native. Knowing that a single cyberthreat could shut down operations, Enerjisa Üretim also established its Operational Technology-Specific Security Operation Center (OT SOC), which relies on Microsoft Defender for IoT and Microsoft Sentinel to operate around the clock and process 3.3 million security events daily.   

The IBM Maximo Application Suite on Azure for asset operations and maintenance is another example. High performance and ultra-low latency combined with the multi-layered security capabilities of the Microsoft Azure stack provide a foundation for secure analytics that boost operational resiliency and reliability. With those advanced security features, utility providers can scale their operations to handle varying workloads without compromising operational security.  

Security solutions to meet your needs 

With Microsoft Security services, customers can leverage the latest technologies and deep industry understanding to enhance their security posture today. Microsoft Defender for IoT offers a complete inventory and continuous monitoring of connected assets across vendors and protocols; Microsoft Purview can secure and govern data across your entire estate while helping to reduce risk and meet compliance requirements; and Microsoft Sentinel provides enterprise-grade intelligent security analytics that help detect previously undetected threats and minimize false positives.  

Microsoft security solutions can also offer improvements across key use cases, including: 

• Augmentation of security operations centers (SOCs): Microsoft security solutions empower SOCs with cloud-native capabilities that enable faster detection and response times—even automating entire responses to security events. Machine learning, AI, and advanced analytics perform the heavy lifting so SOC workers can clarify what’s happening in the SOC environment and focus on the highest-priority events. Our unified security platform eases tool fatigue in SOCs with solutions that work together seamlessly for optimal visibility and efficiency. Solutions such as Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR and Microsoft Incident Response allow for expanded capabilities to support the SOC analysts in their mission.
• Business continuity and disaster recovery: Microsoft security solutions provide automated backup processes that are both scalable and cost-effective, and they can be integrated with on-premise data protection solutions. Our solutions include features like encryption and multi-factor authentication, which protect data during the backup and recovery process and help keep sensitive information secure. This holistic approach helps utility organizations quickly recover from data loss incidents, minimizing downtime and maintaining business continuity. 

Supporting the energy customer and partner ecosystem for a secure future 

To support continued innovation in data security and cloud adoption, we collaborated with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office on an initiative for seamless integration of cloud technology into the grid of the future. Now in its pilot phase, the Cirrus cloud feasibility assessment tool (Cirrus) offers strategic guidance on how to prepare for, or deploy, a cloud solution responsibly, with the ultimate objective to strengthen the resilience and future adaptability of a decarbonized electric grid.  

Built on the security and reliability of Azure, the online version of Cirrus is also accessible through independent platforms with a license. The tool provides valuable insights to integrators, stakeholders, and operators by clarifying goals, future plans, and risk tolerance.  

With visual outputs like key performance indicator (KPI) graphs and consequence diagrams, Cirrus offers contextualized understanding, helping users prioritize critical systems and data based on potential benefits and risks associated with cloud disruptions. Additionally, Cirrus incorporates threat detection and alerts, leveraging Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) principles to empower organizations to make risk-informed decisions and address high-consequence events. 

Opportunities on the horizon with AI 

It’s an exciting time for the industry as AI creates tremendous potential for energy companies to increase their security posture.  

Imagine equipping workers with Microsoft Copilot for Security to help them identify threats earlier, build their risk mitigation skills, and respond to incidents faster. What took hours or days to complete can now be finished in minutes with AI. The efficiency is about more than labor costs. Every minute that goes by gives attackers more opportunity to wreak havoc across the board.  

With AI advancements analyzing trillions of security signals daily, together we can build a safer, more resilient digital energy ecosystem.  

Learn more with Microsoft for energy and resources 

Ready to dive deeper? Don’t miss our webinar, Rethinking cybersecurity in a renewable-powered energy system on October 10, 2024, where we will be sharing how leading energy companies are using the power of technology to safeguard their businesses. Read more about the webinar and sign up to attend.  

• Visit the Microsoft for energy and resources page.
• Read the Microsoft Industry Blogs: Energy and resources blog to learn about themes and actions critical for energy transition.
• Learn about Microsoft security solutions.
• Read more from the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023.
• Check out the Microsoft Defender family of products.
• Visit our Microsoft Copilot for Security Blog.
• Sign up for news and insights from Microsoft Security.

¹ Microsoft Digital Defense Report, October 2023.

² The Power Industry: Presently and Projected, Guidehouse, July 2024.

³ Breaking technical debt’s vicious cycle to modernize your business, McKinsey & Company, April 2023.

⁴ How is cyber innovation disrupting the energy sector and critical infrastructure?, World Economic Forum, October 2023.

The post How energy firms power the world with secure Microsoft technologies appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

In an era where the imperative for clean, reliable, and accessible energy has never been greater, the industry is witnessing a significant shift. The transition to sustainable energy sources, while ensuring grid resilience and optimizing energy distribution, requires a leap in innovation and collaboration. Microsoft, along with our partners, is spearheading this shift, employing AI to not only enhance operational efficiencies but also to empower companies to meet the dual challenges of decarbonization and increased energy demand head-on.

Through comprehensive, integrated offerings such as cloud analytics, intelligent edge computing, and AI, Microsoft and its global partner ecosystem enable energy companies to digitally transform, decarbonize, and drive sustainable growth. And now, generative AI is playing an important role in accelerating the multifaceted energy transition.

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Microsoft technologies for a secure and sustainable energy transition

As the world advances toward a net-zero future, Microsoft technologies play an increasingly pivotal role in the transition to cleaner energy. AI can be used to drive transformative outcomes across the energy sector, from streamlining solar and wind operations, to refining gas and oil production, and modernizing power grids for enhanced efficiency and reliability.

The energy industry is moving toward an open, cloud-based platform. With the Microsoft Cloud solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, energy companies can manage their connected devices, diverse generation and transmission operations, and distributed energy resources more efficiently, securely, and sustainably. Utilizing Azure OpenAI Service, organizations like Schneider Electric are actively assessing and integrating Copilot features into their solutions, transforming user-experiences and delivering new business outcomes that were not possible before.

Microsoft Azure IoT is another important building block for digital transformation, helping organizations optimize energy distribution while lowering operational costs by improving grid performance, efficiently managing distributed energy resources, and implementing proactive and predictive maintenance capabilities. Azure IoT for energy brings the intelligent edge and the intelligent cloud together to deliver energy data in an interoperable format, delivering insights enriched by advanced analytics, AI, and new models of interactivity enabled by mixed reality.

Cybersecurity stands as a top concern within the power and utilities sector, given its pivotal role in operating and safeguarding critical infrastructure. Microsoft Defender for IoT helps mitigate the growing threat landscape for power and utilities companies. As an organization’s operational footprint continues to transform and grow, so does its attack surface, which can include generation facilities, transmission and distribution networks, and connected customer devices like solar equipment, batteries, and electric vehicles. Defender for IoT can eliminate security blind spots and provide holistic protection across operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Last week we announced new data and AI solutions in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability that provide capabilities organizations need to progress in their sustainability journey. These include faster environmental, social and governance (ESG) data analytics and insights, an AI assistant to help accelerate impactful decision-making and reporting, and other advanced capabilities—all designed to help organizations move the needle faster.

Partnerships driving energy industry transformation

Microsoft partners and customers worldwide are transforming the energy sector with innovation, collaboration, and technology and we are proud to join these industry leaders at DISTRIBUTECH International 2024. Featured Microsoft partners include: Accenture, Amperon, AspenTech, AVEVA, Capgemini, Cognizant, Context Labs, EY, Hexagon, InnovationForce, IFS, Itron, PXiSE, Schneider Electric, T-Mobile, and Velrada.

Workforce enablement is a key target for transformation. Microsoft and Schneider Electric are collaborating to leverage copilots and generative AI to transform outage management and control center operations.¹ This initiative is enhancing the capabilities of operators, focusing on real-time decision-making and outage risk reduction. Learn more about how Microsoft is powering the energy transition with AI and collaborative partnerships.

Schneider Electric and Microsoft have a long history of successful partnership in the energy sector. For example, last year, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Schneider Electric, and Microsoft announced the deployment of a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) to maintain grid reliability and accelerate customer adoption of distributed energy resources.² EcoStruxure DERMS from Schneider Electric is a cloud-based, grid-aware software platform that runs on Microsoft Azure, and integrates, analyzes, and optimizes data from distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, electric vehicles, battery energy storage, and microgrids. The solution has enhanced flexibility and resilience, enabling PG&E to deliver clean, reliable, and affordable energy to their customers.

We are also excited to team with Context Labs BV, a leader in climate analytics, to deploy their solutions on Microsoft Azure, with enhanced security AI tooling. This collaboration brings Context Labs’ Immutably™ Enterprise Data Fabric, Decarbonization-as-a-Service™, and CLEAR Path™ solutions to the Azure Marketplace, enabling customers to create more accurate emissions profiles and create, certify, and store transactable Environmental Attributes Certificates and Credits. 

Microsoft and T-Mobile are transforming the energy industry with the T-Mobile for Business 5G Advanced Network Solutions powered by Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), a cloud-managed edge infrastructure and services combined with edge networking. This partnership provides enhanced connectivity options and facilitates on-site data processing and collaboration. T-Mobile for Business offers solutions for 5G connectivity across public, hybrid, and private deployments for energy customers, with its leading nationwide 5G coverage and a portfolio of security and management services.

Azure MEC expands the possibilities from a single platform to a solution that leverages multiple platforms and capabilities. These include Azure-supported edge services and applications, network functions, compute options, radios and devices, and AI. By processing data closer to the end device, latency-and throughput-sensitive user scenarios such as video analytics, real-time robotics, and mixed Internet of Things (IoT) use cases can be improved at a global scale. Customers and partners can benefit from a complete set of Azure services and ecosystem technology components to rapidly build, deploy, and manage solutions with simplicity.

Together, Microsoft and T-Mobile for Business are building an end-to-end ecosystem of solutions for energy customers like AI video analytics and mobile robotics, and specific use cases that include IoT devices, rugged tablet and mobile devices, and augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR) applications. This partnership showcases the combined strength of both companies in driving innovation in the energy sector.

Microsoft at DISTRIBUTECH: Powering business, operations, and communications with AI

The Microsoft Energy and Resources industry team looks forward to sharing new, AI-driven digital solutions at DISTRIBUTECH International 2024 in Orlando, Florida, on February 27 to 29, 2024, the leading annual energy transmission and distribution event for North America. This year’s conference highlights electricity delivery automation, energy efficiency, distributed energy resource management, resiliency, reliability, and more.

Meet our team, customers, and partners on stage and at the Microsoft booth, focused on powering a sustainable future in the era of AI. We’ll share our perspectives across multiple sessions including an afternoon keynote with Steve Clayton, Vice President, Microsoft Communications Strategy on February 27. Steve will share how his team uses the power of generative AI to reshape all aspects of Microsoft’s communication discipline—from public relations and measurement to social media communications and much more. He will be joined by Ron Utterbeck, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Eversource for a fireside chat about the AI journey at his company including insights, culture, and vision for the future.

Other thought leadership sessions featuring the Microsoft team include:

• Eric Denton, Senior Director Energy Industry for Business Systems, Microsoft, will address the integration of environmental, social, and governance issues with a talk on AI and other technologies that are impacting utilities.
• Liang Downey, Power and Utilities Industry Advisor, Microsoft, Abdul Rahman Mohammed, Director of Data Analytics and Decision Services, MISO, and Steve Adams, Senior Information Technology Manager Digital Strategy, Constellation, will illuminate the path to data-driven leadership in utilities. The panel will explore how industry leaders are transforming the power and utilities landscape through data and the integration of data culture and operational insights that enhance decision-making, productivity, and operational efficiency.
• Balamurugan Balakreshnan, Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft, Teague Maxfield, Senior Manager, Solutions Delivery Architecture, Constellation Clearsight, and Rebekah Eggers, Global Director, Client Engagement and Innovation, IBM, will examine use cases, lessons learned, and other insights on the role of AI and machine learning that support transmission and distribution (T&D) asset inspections. Topics will include the potential impact on operational efficiencies, the opportunity to generate additional insights, and how Microsoft and the Azure Machine Learning platform are supporting Clearsight’s AI and machine learning endeavors.
• Pat Lo, Power and Utilities Industry Advisor, Microsoft with Erik Johnson, Vice President, Digital Workplace Services, National Grid, and Quinn Nakayama, Senior Director, GRID Innovation Research and Development, PG&E, will discuss accelerating time-to-business value with AI and successful implementations of AI solutions using Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service. Panelists will share their experiences leveraging AI—including generative AI—to solve business challenges and best practices of adopting AI, such as data quality, governance, and talent.
• Laurent Boinot, Power and Utilities Industry Advisor, Microsoft, Keri Glitch, Vice President, Information Technology, Fortis, and Alla Gogerman, Digital Productivity Center of Excellence Information Technology Leader, PG&E, explore enabling a clean energy future with data in the era of AI. Hear from industry leaders on the critical interplay between digital innovation, cultural transformation, and information technology (IT) security, and how digital technology is helping to build a more modern, adaptable, and efficient grid infrastructure that integrates renewable energy sources using low-code and no-code capabilities alongside strategic shifts in organizational culture.

I am thrilled to join customers and partners on three sessions to dive deeper into AI and cybersecurity in the power and utilities sector:

• With Rober Biagotti, Vice President, Exelon, Carol Johnston, Vice President Energy and Jon Morensen, Global Enterprise Asset Management Chief Technology Officer of IFS, and Robel Lulseged, Director, Engineering and Asset Management Support, Oncor, we will highlight how Exelon is enhancing asset performance and workforce agility with AI and predictive state analytics through insights into improving asset longevity, employee productivity, skill-based task matching, and optimized scheduling.
• Empowering Operators: The Rise of AI Copilots in Control Centers with Angus McPherson, Segment Solution Team Leader, Power and Grid, of Schneider Electric, and Fahimeh Kazempour, Head of Grid Modernization, Wood Mackenzie will explore how leading AI technologies are transforming the power and utilities operations landscape including outage management and control center operations, focusing on real-time decision-making and outage risk reduction.
• Utilities, Beef Up Your Security convenes leaders from Exelon, BloombergNEF, the United States Department of Energy, and Dragos, to address how to increase utility resilience and cybersecurity by delving into key cyber threats, technologies that can help utilities mitigate those threats, and how utility strategies need to change to boost cyber resilience.

Join us in Orlando

Today’s energy challenges require smart solutions that deliver better business outcomes and accelerate progress. As we work together for a cleaner, more sustainable world, we’ll continue to leverage digital innovation and our strong partnerships to advance our net-zero goals.

Microsoft, with our customers and partners, is committed to advancing AI to accelerate the energy transition, grid modernization, and decarbonization by delivering the technology, platforms, and solutions that enable digital transformation. We hope you visit us at DISTRIBUTECH International 2024 at Booth 1451 to meet our Microsoft Energy and Resources team, partners, and customers, and share your thoughts on creating a sustainable energy future together. Register here for a special complimentary Exhibition Pass courtesy of Microsoft. See you in Orlando!

Learn more about Energy and Resources solutions with Microsoft

• Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service
• Microsoft for Energy and Resources
• Microsoft AI solutions
• Microsoft Energy and Resources Blog
• Microsoft Azure AI Services

¹Schneider Electric drives Generative AI productivity and sustainability solutions by integrating Microsoft Azure OpenAI, PR Newswire.

²PG&E taps Schneider, Microsoft for new DERMS, Power Grid International.

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The energy sector, currently the leading source of global greenhouse gas emissions, is at a pivotal juncture. Furthermore, 20 percent of all global emissions emanate from the transportation sector (passenger and freight), a figure that has doubled since 1970.¹ 80 percent of the increase comes from road vehicles—both personal transport and freight. This stark reality underscores an undeniable imperative: the need for swift and decisive action in adopting sustainable energy practices which has never been more pressing.² Electric vehicles (EVs) are an obvious choice, but widescale adoption requires the integration of more renewable energy sources and a modern grid that can support them.

Revamping power grids is just one hurdle. To meet increasing demand and reduce the cost of carbon free energy, we also need affordable, secure, and sustainable ways to commercialize, scale, and integrate new energy solutions. Yet, there still continues to be a considerable backlog of solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear projects stuck in regulatory bottlenecks awaiting interconnection and seeking transmission access. Moreover, as we introduce modern grid solutions and market innovations, the need to manage security risks also rises. Industries across the globe are tackling an increase in cyberattacks, with critical infrastructure services like gas, water, and power and utilities being particularly vulnerable. Proactive security measures, including zero trust architecture, are imperative to safeguard these vital systems against both present and emerging risks.

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Accelerating deployment of clean energy with partnerships and AI

Harnessing the power of data and collaboration is critical to conquering the triad of sustainability, affordability, and security in energy. At Microsoft, we’re channeling our capabilities to expedite and heighten partnerships to accelerate the deployment of carbon free energy and supporting technologies. Collaborative partnerships and AI are supercharging that mission, with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot helping to address challenges ranging from empowering the utility workforce to streamlining budgets and optimizing operational efficiency. In this collective journey, teams from within Microsoft are working in lockstep with customers and partners on AI-driven applications across a spectrum of needs—from predictive analytics, proactive maintenance, forecasting, grid analytics, scenario modeling and simulation, customer service, supply chain, field operations, health and safety, and so much more. 

Shinning a light on innovation at Enlit Europe 2023

We are thrilled to deepen our ongoing partnerships and energize new ones as a key sponsor of Enlit Europe 2023 at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris, France, from November 28 to 30, 2023. With Europe at the cutting edge of energy innovation and progressive energy policy, Enlit is the convergence point for over 15,000 energy professionals, 700 exhibitors, and 500 speakers. Together, we’ll dive into dialogue focused on reimagining how we generate, transmit, distribute, and consume energy.

The Microsoft Energy and Resources team will join industry leaders to exchange insights on emergent challenges, breakthrough innovations, and the progress of European Union-funded projects shaping our sector. Our team is scheduled to participate in a series of speaking engagements, including collaborative sessions with Schneider Electric, reflecting our shared commitment to forging the future of energy together.

Microsoft Energy and Resources sessions at Enlit Europe 2023

Cybersecurity and critical infrastructure

We’ll discuss how modern cybersecurity leaders can leverage AI to help protect against business risks and how digital solutions are helping power and utilities leaders tackle the things that keep them awake at night. Speakers include:

• Hanna Grene, Global Go-to-Market and Operations, Energy and Resources Industry, Microsoft
• Indrek Künnapuu, Chief Information Security Officer, Elektrilevi
• Elad Shaviv, Head of the Business Development Division, Israel Electric Corporation
• Ray Pinto, Senior Director for Digital Transformation Policy, Digital Europe
• Marie Duval-Soyez, Head of the Digital Risk Management Department, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer, Enedis

AI in the energy sector in Europe: Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations

The panel will share insights on how to harness the potential of AI for the energy sector in Europe, while ensuring that its outcomes are reliable, sustainable, and human-centric. The discussion will also highlight Europe’s approach, vision, and leadership in AI across the energy sector. Speakers include:

• Bilal Khursheed, Worldwide Power and Utilities Leader, Microsoft
• Kristian Ruby, Secretary General, Eurelectric
• Rachel Berryman, Deputy Head of AI Center of Excellence, Elia Group
• Andrei Covatariu, Co-chair of the Digitalization in Energy Task Force, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Grid of the future leaders session

We’re also excited to share the stage with Schneider Electric, a pivotal ally in navigating the energy transition. We announced our partnership with PG&E and Schneider Electric in July 2023, marking a milestone in harnessing cloud technology for energy management. This initiative has swiftly moved from announcement to action, deploying a Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) on Microsoft Azure. This advanced solution empowers PG&E to seamlessly integrate and optimize distributed energy resources (DERs), bolstering the grid resilience during power disruptions and paving the way for the grid’s preparedness for EV charging demands. The innovation lies not only in the technology itself but also in the transformative approach to collaboration, setting a new benchmark for partnership across the energy sector. Speakers include:

• Hanna Grene, Global Go-to-Market and Operations, Energy and Resources, Microsoft
• Alexis Grenon, Senior Vice President, Schneider Electric

Establishing a cloud-first strategy

The strategic deployment of cloud infrastructure is a cornerstone of digital transformation, offering a blueprint for future-proofed business models. In this session, we will address the essential facets of cloud enablement, demonstrating how a cloud-first approach is pivotal for accelerating digital transformation. Discover the advantages of embracing the cloud and foster nimble utility business operations that enable scalability, innovation, and cost-efficiency.

• Featuring Bilal Khursheed, Worldwide Power and Utilities Leader, Microsoft

AI and machine learning, robotics, and space data

Take a deep dive into automation, virtual reality, and AI increasing accuracy and efficiency in a digital energy world. Join us for an exciting session and discover how AI, machine learning, robotics, and space data are transforming the energy industry and shaping the future of our planet and beyond.

• Featuring Per Christian Honningsvaag, Europe, the Middle East and Africa Business Leader, Energy and Resources Industry, Microsoft

Working together on the journey to decarbonization

As an industry, we stand at a pivotal inflection point where digital innovation is reshaping the power and utilities sector. The collective effort to embrace digital transformation, pursue decarbonization, and foster innovation is not just thrilling—it’s imperative for overcoming the sectors most intricate challenges. Whether you’re a utility leader challenged with rearchitecting your grid, a security officer integrating cybersecurity strategies in an era of generative AI, or a consumer considering your first EV, one theme is clear: We are all on the same team, working together towards a more sustainable future for everyone. You can read more on how AI can enable a secure and decarbonized grid in Enlit’s interview with Hanna Grene.

Join the Microsoft Energy and Resources Industry team at Enlit Europe 2023, where we unite with our customers and partners to expedite the energy sector’s transformation. Together, we are at the forefront, catalyzing change through grid modernization and AI-driven solutions. Use this link to register directly for a special complimentary exhibition pass courtesy of Microsoft. We eagerly anticipate exploring the possibilities with you in Paris.

Learn more about Microsoft for Energy and Resources

• Learn about the importance of a clean data estate in the power and utilities sector and the importance of partnerships on the journey to becoming carbon neutral in this podcast featuring Laurent Boinot from the Microsoft Energy and Resources team.
• Microsoft highlights innovation in power and utilities
• Understand how AI is driving economic impact for organizations
• Microsoft for Energy and Resources
• Microsoft Security Copilot
• Announcing Microsoft Secure Future Initiative to advance security engineering
• Empowering responsible AI practices

¹United Nations Facts and Figures.

²Era free of fossil-fuel powered vehicles comes into focus at COP26; draft outcome is met with calls for more ambition, United Nations.

The post Enlit Europe 2023: Partner with Microsoft to accelerate carbon free energy appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

In nearly every conversation I have with industry executives, we discuss the headwinds facing the industry from inflation and supply chain constraints to ambitious policy goals, rising cybersecurity risk, and extreme climate events. Yet no matter how large or complex the challenges are, we always turn to opportunity, solutions, and how we will accomplish more together.

This was exactly the tone at IEEE Grid Edge 2023 with leaders from Eaton, Landis+Gyr, and Siemens. We discussed the accelerating transition towards a digital grid, the importance of collaboration across disciplines, the leap-forward potential of generative AI, and the necessity of partnerships to turn our toughest challenges into our greatest successes.

As we head into summer, I’m excited to share highlights from this past spring including a large language models (LLM) use case at Ontario Power Generation, key takeaways from DISTRIBUTECH 2023, and how our partners are restoring power to communities impacted by extreme weather events. We also launched two new video series with recent expert speakers covering policy and partnerships—you won’t want to miss them.   

Ontario Power Generation transforms operations with ChatGPT

ChatGPT provides real solutions to real challenges that the power and utilities sector is facing. Leading energy companies are already harnessing the power of generative AI and LLM to improve productivity, safety, and performance. Ontario Power Generation worked closely with Microsoft to implement Microsoft 365 infused with AI capabilities. Innovations include an AI-powered chatbot called ChatOPG designed to communicate with employees using natural language processing. ChatOPG functions as a digital personal assistant, answering specific questions on topics ranging from IT support and HR processes to creating step-by-step troubleshooting plans based on past equipment failures, saving staff time and helping to connect them with essential information.

The power of partnerships at DISTRIBUTECH 2023

Earlier this year at DISTRIBUTECH 2023 in San Diego, the Microsoft Energy team joined customers, partners, and industry leaders to discuss electric vehicle integration, substation automation and renewable energy optimization, and much more.

We showcased the Microsoft technology platform and innovations with 12 partners at our booth including Accenture, Avangrid, Awesense, Bentley, Cognite, EnXchange, eSmart Systems, InnovationForce, Itineris, Itron, Neudesic, NODES, PXiSE, Schneider Electric, Sonata, TerraPraxis, Thread (Airtonomy), and Uptake. Together, we showcased what the future holds for data analytics, grid modernization and grid edge technologies, digital workforce enablement, collaboration, and cybersecurity.

It was no surprise that renewable energy management and accelerating the energy transition were top of mind and took center stage across all sessions. Imperatives include grid modernization, Distributed Energy Resource Management Solutions (DERMS), Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), and the need to harness digital technology to achieve these transformative goals.

Another important topic was improving digital customer engagement and robust cybersecurity. Across initiatives, gaining actionable insights from huge volumes of data was recognized as essential for addressing the grid’s future resiliency, digitalization, and decentralization.

Accelerating to net zero with Portland General Electric and InnovationForce

To meet aggressive decarbonization targets for 2030, Portland General Electric (PGE) needed a technology platform that could exponentially increase the volume and quality of ideas in its innovation program. PGE turned to InnovationForce for a revolutionary platform based on Microsoft Cloud technologies that helps enterprises innovate faster while reducing the time spent per person. The team is testing a wide range of digital transformation technologies including digital twins, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), drones, automation, grid edge intelligence, new sensing technologies, and transformation technologies.

More than 50 use cases are being tested, with learnings documented and shared in an Innovation Hub with dashboard reporting. The project has already vetted ideas that have identified as much as USD500 million in CAPEX and USD500 million in OPEX savings and avoided (estimated over 20 years) by use of more affordable, disruptive digital technology.

Bringing cleaner energy to disaster response

From decarbonization to disaster-recovery, alternative energy sources enable resilience. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Footprint Project is a nonprofit organization that deploys solar-powered resources to communities impacted by catastrophic weather events. The nonprofit teamed with Schneider Electric, a leading Microsoft Cloud Partner and sustainability leader. The Footprint Project’s microgrids, which combine power from multiple sources, collects data from solar generators using Schneider Electric’s microgrid technology built on Microsoft Azure.

Time magazine included Footprint’s microgrids on Time’s List of Best Inventions of 2022, and the partnership was featured at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in January 2023. The work was also highlighted as part of the Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Initiative for its impact in helping advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The work we do with our energy customers and partners underscores the power of innovation and how technology is boosting momentum for cleaner energy in the power and utilities sector. To meet global demand for safe, reliable, and clean energy, Microsoft will continue to partner with the energy industry on innovative solutions that accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future.

Stay current on energy trends with The Short Circuit and Top Trends in Energy video series

• In the first episode of The Short Circuit, Darryl Willis, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Energy and Resources Industry, interviews special guest Tom Deitrich, President and CEO of Itron. A global leader in the power and utilities sector, Itron is driving some of the most significant advancements in smart meters and smart grids to enable a resilient, secure, and low-carbon power grid. To hear about ways that data and analytics are shaping the energy transition, watch the interview on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and click the bell for alerts on new videos including discussions with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and Constellation.
• We also just launched the Top Trends in Energy video series and I was pleased to be joined by the CEO of GridWise Alliance Dr. Karen Wayland to talk about Modernizing the energy grid. Learn how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in the United States create opportunities for investment in digital infrastructure and discover how companies are implementing new technologies, data-driven approaches, and investment strategies to manage the growing demand on the grid. As more technology is added to the grid, more data will be generated, making cloud storage and data analytics critical components of grid modernization.
• In the episode Harnessing the data revolution in the power and utilities industry with Bilal Khursheed, Director, Americas Power and Utilities Industry, Microsoft, and Gina Weber, Utility Analytics Institute Managing Director, learn how data analytics serves as a bridge between technology, real-world applications, and customer service. By adopting a data-driven approach, power and utilities companies are making better decisions, increasing efficiency, and boosting security.
• In Building momentum in the transition to clean energy with Chris Arend, Business Applications Sales Executive—South Region, Microsoft and Bill Kent, Executive Director at the Association of Energy Engineers, hear about the role of data and technology in predicting energy needs, stabilizing market pricing, and controlling supply and demand outputs. Energy companies have the advantage of optimizing existing infrastructure and assets to accelerate decarbonization and transition to a clean energy future.

Stay tuned for more from the Microsoft Energy Team, our partners, and our customers as we work together to power a sustainable future.

Additional Resources

• 3 key takeaways from CERAWeek 2022 and a cleaner future for the energy transition. 
• Learn more about themes and actions critical for energy transition. 
• Read more about how Microsoft partners with energy companies to accelerate digital transformation.
• Microsoft brings mixed reality and new immersive collaboration tools to industrial metaverse customers.
• Learn more about how Microsoft works to enable the sustainable growth of renewables in the mining industry.
• Enable your data to do more in the cloud with our energy data manager.
• To learn how to attract, train, and retain employees for your next-generation workforce, visit our transform your workforce employee retention website.
• To learn more about Microsoft for Energy and Resources, visit our future of energy industry solutions website. 

Microsoft for Energy and Resources

Transform the energy and resources industry and achieve net zero.

Reimagine energy today

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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.

The post Exelon, TransAlta choose Microsoft to transform in the cloud appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Countries around the world are working toward more sustainability, security and reliability when it comes to their networked energy systems. In response to the European Union’s (EU) 2009 Renewables Directive, Norway has taken a strategic approach to its power system plans; the country set an aggressive goal for renewable energy to be 67.5 percent of gross final consumption of energy supplied by renewable sources by the year 2020. With nearly 100 percent of the electric power generation in Norway already coming from renewables like hydropower, the country is well on its way toward reaching its objectives.

As part of the EU’s recommendations for 2020, at least 80 percent of old electricity meters must be replaced with smart meters wherever it is cost effective to do so, resulting in reduced emissions and drops in annual household energy consumption. Norway, once again, stepped up to the challenge and set a tighter deadline for itself of January 2019 for having all of its utilities develop and deploy smart meter grids across the country. This is no easy task, as every utility company must now heavily invest time, budget and resources to roll out a new digital infrastructure without preexisting industry or business best practices and unknown cost savings or benefits as a result of the required changes.

New regulations drive new market opportunities

The good news is that this dynamic situation is creating unique partnerships between independent software vendors (ISVs) and Norway’s utilities to explore and create new energy-saving solutions. From communication infrastructure within the grid to individual home automation, rapid innovation is happening throughout Norway’s power and utility sector including a number of applications built on Microsoft Azure.

One example of an organization putting new grid optimization to work is Ringeriks Kraft. The Norwegian energy company implemented a solution from eSmart Systems to run algorithms in Azure that helped identify opportunities to reorganize its existing substations instead of having to build new ones and saved the company millions.

Lyse is another Norwegian business operating within the energy industry. By strategically increasing its investments in telecom and smart home technology, the company is now making houses safer and eco-friendlier for consumers. As a result of identifying these new market opportunities, over 50 percent of Lyse’s revenue now comes from having creating a more digitally-focused infrastructure and services.

ISVs maximize resources and deliver solutions

Companies like CGI, Enfo, Enoro, eSmart Systems, Teleplan, and Powel are all examples of ISVs with proven strengths in maximizing the capabilities of the Azure platform within the energy and utilities sector. These development partners bring tremendous value to their customers by creating straightforward solutions that decrease integration costs by anticipating the agility needed to address upcoming regulatory and market changes.

Tremendous momentum continues to develop between customers and ISVs throughout the region with regard to smart energy solutions. The Hafslund Group is Norway’s largest power-grid operator and distributor and is a major producer of renewable energy. Hafslund is using Microsoft Azure to improve efficiency and support its social mission to provide improved availability and high security of supply to the communities they serve. Teleplan Globe is a Norway-based ISV and its new CARMEN system, running on Microsoft Azure, has brought huge value to its customers. Nearly 80 percent of the country’s smart grid rollout is using this technology and due to good radio planning, it is significantly reducing the cost of smart meter rollout. Enoro powers the validation, estimation and editing process of metering values in Microsoft Azure. These values will be uploaded daily to the national Elhub, the central datahub for metered data and market processes in the Norwegian electricity market, once it comes online in 2017. And Powel’s new Big Data Solution for Condition Monitoring is built on the basis of digitalization, driven by Industrie 4.0, where IoT and sensors are considered the default. Condition Monitoring, based on Microsoft Azure Analytics Platform System, finds the knowledge in Big Data and applies it to real–time operations and maintenance, dramatically improving service quality and helping energy companies avoid costly outages.

Enabling the Smart City

Utilities and partners are also key to enabling Smart City scenarios, especially among the Nordic countries given relatively economic stability, strong public sector and engagement in green technologies and smart city solutions.

Our Microsoft CityNext is a partner-led initiative that empowers cities to be more sustainable, prosperous, and economically competitive—with a simplified approach. It helps cities unlock their potential by delivering innovative digital services that can help citizens lead safer, healthier, and more educated lives. Cities can tap into the solution portfolios of Microsoft and our partners and innovate at their own pace, deploying real-time solutions that can interoperate with and improve upon existing IT investments. These solutions transform their operations and infrastructures, engage citizens and businesses and accelerate their economic development and environmental sustainability.

To help advance the Smart City conversation, this year, Microsoft Europe is joining forces with companies like Lyse to support the Smart City conference Nordic Edge Expo, which will take place on the 6th and 7th of October 2016 in Stavanger Forum. We plan to bring more than 25 partners to our CityNext exhibition where we will share learnings and best practices with leaders engaged in new technological solutions that make cities, businesses, organizations and homes smarter. These solutions are an important part of the answer to challenges facing the world, especially when it comes to the environment and increasing urbanization.

As 2019 approaches, Norwegian power and utilities companies continue to work hard to meet the government’s goals related to energy systems and smart meter integration. Creating the new digital infrastructure that is necessary is no easy task, but advances are being made with the help of seasoned ISV’s leveraging software solutions built on the Microsoft Azure platform. As a result of the required industry changes, many power and utility businesses are not only bringing more efficient, cost-effective and safer solutions to their customers, but are also identifying new opportunities and benefits for their organizations as well.

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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.

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

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

The post Remembering Jon Arnold – a man larger than life itself appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.