Microsoft is moving to develop smart electrical grid in the Nordic region with the help of power utility companies, Agder Energi and Powel AS. Microsoft will take advantage of its Azure intelligent cloud, PowerBI and Azure IoT Hub services. This partnership is all about making power grids more efficient and smarter than they were before. Agder Energi is expected to produce some interesting things here seeing as the company is known for distributing energy systems for solar panels, batteries, and smart homes.
“At Agder Energi we want to use new technology to make the power grid more efficient, more predictable and more flexible,” said Agder Energi’s CEO Tom Nysted. “We will go from being energy generators to energy partners, with a more active role for our customers. Together with our partners at Microsoft and Powel, we will use innovation to solve the challenges facing the grid.”
The pilot project should kick off at a Agder Energi substation that regularly achieves over 120 percent of its capacity throughout the year When it comes down to predicting demand, this system should help utility companies better predict demand, and save money since an upgrade might not be needed.
Should the project turn out to be a success, all companies involved would want the system to perform automatic load balancing of possible renewable energy in the future.
“Renewable energy resources and advancements in intelligent cloud technology are driving a digital transformation of grid operations to explore new business models,” said Kevin Dallas, Microsoft corporate VP, IoT Business Development. “Enabling solutions like Agder’s will accelerate widespread renewable and distributed power generation. It’s a bright future for the utility industry and for a sustainable world.”
We see Microsoft doing more work like this in the future, so keep an eye out.
