GRID ENVIRONMENT
Duke Energy | November 18, 2022
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), one of America's largest energy holding companies, and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), are entering into a multiyear strategic collaboration to accelerate the utility's development of industry-leading grid solutions that will benefit customers and help advance Duke Energy's clean energy transition.
As part of this agreement, Duke Energy will build new smart grid software and services on AWS and expand its Intelligent Grid Services – a suite of custom-built applications that help the utility anticipate future energy demand and identify where and how to update the power grid. AWS, in turn, will work alongside Duke Energy to build out cloud technologies to support Duke Energy's grid-planning solutions, so they run faster and more cost effectively.
This collaboration will further Duke Energy's commitment to use AWS as their primary cloud provider for software development. The utility is also migrating information technology (IT) and grid analytics workloads to AWS.
Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy strategy to create a smarter energy future for its customers and communities. This includes investing $145 billion over the next decade in capital projects, the majority of which will go toward modernizing the nation's largest electric grid. These investments will improve the grid's reliability and resiliency, connect a growing number of renewables and prepare the grid for rapid electric vehicle adoption – all while keeping affordability for customers at the forefront.
"Our digital evolution is foundational to our clean energy transition, For example, to accurately simulate future energy needs and plan investments for the grid, we need to run hundreds of millions of power flow calculations – a process that would take weeks using traditional IT hardware. By using cloud technologies that AWS is developing for Duke Energy, we aim to run those same simulations in 15 minutes or less."
-Bonnie Titone, senior vice president and chief information officer at Duke Energy.
These simulations – and other analytics made possible by Duke Energy's Intelligent Grid Services applications on AWS – deliver insights that will help the utility continue its data-driven grid investment plans. The industry-leading applications can forecast where needs will be greatest and estimate the amount of load the distribution system can accommodate without impacting power quality or reliability. These applications can also make recommendations on the most cost-effective grid solutions needed to meet the evolving needs of customers, whether that customer is an individual who wants to put solar panels on their home or a commercial customer that wants to electrify its fleet of vehicles.
And by running the applications on AWS, Duke Energy is able to get these actionable insights from millions of gigabytes of data at unprecedented scale and speed. Faster, more accurate insights mean Duke Energy is better equipped to build the grid of the future – a smart grid that can withstand extreme weather, handle the growing needs of electric vehicles, and support green technologies, such as rooftop solar and battery energy storage.
"Duke Energy and AWS share similar commitments to a smarter and cleaner energy future with net-zero carbon emissions,These Intelligent Grid Services leverage the proven scalability and reliability of the world's leading cloud and will help Duke Energy meet energy demands while maximizing the use of clean energy sources, such as solar and wind power, to serve their customers."
-Sarah Cooper, general manager of AWS Industry Products.
Customers are at the center of everything Duke Energy does," said Harry Sideris, executive vice president of customer experience, solutions and services at Duke Energy. "Through this partnership with AWS, we'll be able to make better decisions at the micro and macro levels to meet the evolving needs of our customers and communities as we build a smarter, cleaner energy future together.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people.
Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.
Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2022 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Amazon Web Services
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 93 Availability Zones within 29 geographic regions, with announced plans for 18 more Availability Zones and six more AWS Regions in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
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ENERGY
Onward Energy | January 20, 2023
Onward Energy recently announced that the company had completed the previously disclosed acquisition of Global Atlantic Financial Group's 1,171 MW operating solar portfolio. The acquisition comprises operating solar assets in eight states and positions the company as one of the most extensive operators of solar assets in the United States. With the completion of this acquisition, Onward will own and operate more than 4.3 GW of renewable energy in twenty-two states. The deal represents the largest renewable investment in Onward's history and diversifies the company's 6 GW energy generation portfolio.
Chief Executive Officer of Onward, Steve Doyon, said "Onward Energy is a committed partner in the energy transition and this acquisition marks an important step in our continued leadership towards a future powered by clean energy. We are grateful to the Global Atlantic team for their collaboration throughout this process."
(Source- Cision PR Newswire)
Concurrently with the closure of the deal, Onward secured long-term financing from KeyBank, which acted as the administrative agent for a bank group of relationship lenders comprising NatWest, Commerzbank, CoBank, ING, and Truist. During the deal, Global Atlantic had Onpeak Capital LLC as its financial advisor and Mayer Brown LLP as its legal advisor. Milbank LLP served as Onward's legal counsel.
About Onward Energy
Onward Energy is an independent company that generates and operates about 6 GW of renewable energy from solar, wind and gas generation projects in the U.S. It is one of the national leaders in developing clean, renewable energy. The company is a pioneer in the transition into clean energy, investing in the next generation of clean, reliable technologies that will expedite the customers and communities to meet their decarbonization objectives faster.
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ENERGY,ECONOMY,PRODUCTS
Brookfield Renewable | December 05, 2022
At AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company today announced that Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM.A), one of the world's leading investors in renewable power, has selected AWS as a preferred cloud provider to accelerate its digital transformation and become a more data-driven company in the cloud. Brookfield migrated its legacy systems to AWS and is using AWS’s analytics, containers, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and storage capabilities, as well as AWS’s extensive partner network, to modernize its technology infrastructure, optimize operations, and boost innovation.
In addition to its agreement with AWS, Brookfield Renewable, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management and one of the world’s largest publicly traded renewable power platforms, will provide 601.6 megawatts (MW) of clean wind and solar energy capacity to power Amazon’s operations in Europe, North America, and India. In total, these projects are expected to generate 1,370 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is enough to power more than 120,000 U.S. homes per year.
Our partnership with Amazon is a tremendously exciting example of companies working together to reach net zero, AWS is helping us modernize our operational systems, giving us the scalability, reliability, and innovation we need to deliver clean energy around the world. In return, Brookfield Renewable will provide renewable power to Amazon on three continents, which will help Amazon stay on path to power its operations with 100% renewable energy. We look forward to seeing what more this partnership can bring in the future.”
Ruth Kent, chief operating officer at Brookfield Renewable.
Working with AWS Professional Services, AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) BDO Lixar, and AWS Partner Databricks, Brookfield Asset Management consolidated 40 petabytes of data in a data lake on AWS to optimize facility operations, increase production output, and improve equipment performance. Applying AWS machine learning and analytics capabilities to this data helps the company automate key aspects of its operations. These capabilities enable Brookfield to proactively manage complex commercial transactions, improve returns on assets, and reduce operating costs. Brookfield Asset Management also uses Databricks’ Lakehouse Platform on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to provide a central data analytics platform that is increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs across more than 10 internal business organizations (including Trading, Risk, Origination, and Operations).
About Amazon Web Services
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 96 Availability Zones within 30 geographic regions, with announced plans for 15 more Availability Zones and five more AWS Regions in Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.
About Brookfield Renewable
Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world’s largest publicly traded, pure-play renewable power platforms. Its portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, solar and storage facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and totals approximately 24,000MW of installed capacity and an approximately 100,000MW development pipeline. Investors can access its portfolio either through Brookfield Renewable Partners, or Brookfield Renewable Corporation, a Canadian corporation.
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