Duke Energy is looking to accelerate the development of its industry-leading smart grid solutions and strengthen its clean energy transition efforts by entering into a multiyear strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services.
As part of the collaboration, Duke Energy will develop new grid software and services on AWS as well as expand its Intelligent Grid Services suite of custom-built energy management applications that help the utility forecast future energy demands and devise ways to update the power grid to respond to such requirements.
For its part, AWS will build cloud technologies to support Duke Energy’s grid-planning solutions and ensure their efficient functioning.
“Our digital evolution is foundational to our clean energy transition,” commented Bonnie Titone, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Duke Energy. “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.”
By running the applications on AWS, Duke Energy applications will be able to generate actionable insights by processing millions of gigabytes of data at unprecedented scale and speed. Such faster and accurate insights will empower Duke Energy 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, according to the companies.
This collaboration will strengthen Duke Energy’s commitment to use AWS as its primary cloud provider for software development.
The utility is also migrating information technology and grid analytics workloads to AWS.
“Duke Energy and AWS share similar commitments to a smarter and cleaner energy future with net-zero carbon emissions,” Sarah Cooper, General Manager of AWS Industry Products, said. “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.”
Duke Energy has outlined a clean energy strategy as part of which the utility plans to invest $145 billion in capital projects, mostly aimed at modernizing its electric grid, over the next decade. The 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 maintaining energy cost efficiency and affordability.
