Smart Management of Renewable Energy Sources: Alstom and Microsoft Announce Their Partnership for the Cloud Computing Initiative

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Issy-les-Moulineaux – February 22, 2011 –Microsoft and Alstom have announced a new phase in the partnership they first began back in 2002.  The two will be developing integration and management solutions for renewable energy sources using smart grids.

Alstom and Microsoft will be taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by cloud computing to optimize architectures and costs for eco-city management solutions.  The advantages of cloud computing are many:  greater flexibility, lower costs, and optimized operations.  It will be possible to create new business models for managing renewable energy resources so that the ecosystem can find its equilibrium.

This announcement demonstrates yet again the firm commitment of Alstom and Microsoft to create innovative solutions for the smart management of electrical solutions.  The overriding goal is to reduce CO2 emissions and meet the energy demands of emerging countries.

A common goal:  optimizing energy management to help develop renewable energy 

According to the Electric Power Research Institute, energy consumption will increase by 30% by 2030.  With so much at stake, smart grids offer nearly unlimited potential for optimizing electrical power management and creating new business models that are adapted to tomorrow's world.  For Microsoft and Alstom, this means the sharing of innovative IT technologies and energy management know-how.

Microsoft and Alstom are now working together to create new management solutions for energy distribution based on cloud computing:  The security and scalability offered by the Microsoft Windows Azure platform will enable Alstom to optimize the management of electrical power plants, better manage the power grid, and build energy management systems based on a scenario that is perfectly adapted to the needs of eco-city projects.

"We are taking the partnership we first began with Alstom in 2002 to a new level as part of our long-term strategy to develop optimized management solutions for energy resources. Our new initiative using cloud computing is based on a common vision. We are firmly convinced that it will enable us to create a whole new generation of solutions that will be tailored to the needs of towns and eco-cities," declared Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft Corporation.

 "As this partnership clearly shows, a new ecosystem is now becoming a reality. Together with Alstom, we will be using the many advantages offered by cloud computing in terms of safety and upgradeability to develop a new generation of innovative solutions that have now become indispensable for optimizing energy management," said Marc Jalabert, Microsoft France Marketing Director.

Green cities are a major project that Alstom has targeted to demonstrate the advantages offered by smart electrical grids integrating new concepts (renewable energy sources, active energy efficiency in buildings, and electrically-powered vehicles).  The first step has already been taken by Veolia in Nice (ADEME grand prize winner), and in the United States by Duke in the city of Charlotte.

For its part, Microsoft considers energy management—and sustainable energy sources—to be a strategic segment.  The company also plans on working together with Alstom on specialized platforms for energy management and services to emerging countries.

"This strategic partnership has allowed us to do more than just develop innovative, cost-effective and reliable solutions for monitoring and controlling energy production centers.  We can now integrate these solutions in the energy ecosystem.  The operating platform developed by Microsoft encompasses all the critical data for production means, and creates intuitive links between the electrical plant and its environment.  As a result the full gamut of energy production means is optimized.  Microsoft is one of the cornerstones of Alstom's IT systems offer for electrical production," said Laurent Demortier, Senior Vice President Power Automation & Controls.

"Thispartnership is also extremely important for electrical power transmission and distribution," added Jean-Michel Cornille, Senior-Vice-President Automation and Smart Grids, Alstom Grid.  "TheMicrosoft platforms form the backbone of the smart grid management solutions that we've deployed in electrical grid control rooms around the world. These solutions are helping us find answers to the new challenges presented by the energy ecosystem.  Examples include the management of renewable energy integration in France and Denmark, better stability for power grids in the United States and China, and optimized energy efficiency for U.S. power grids."

"The development of new Smart Grid solutions for energy management in eco-neighborhoods is an excellent opportunity to strengthen our ties with Microsoft and to offer our customer new technology that takes full advantage of all that cloud computing has to offer." 

Finding innovative solutions through a long-term partnership 

Since 2002, Alstom has been using Microsoft platform technology for its Smart Grids solutions, which makes it possible to seamlessly integrate renewable energy sources into existing electrical power grids.

The "Smart Power" offer developed by Alstom is based on Microsoft technologies (.Net Framework and Windows) and offers solutions with high added value, such as:

  • An advanced control room for electrical power plants, with high-level ergonomics.
  • IT asset management to optimize performance levels and planning for electrical power plants.
  • Virtual management tools for electrical power plants to supervise renewable energy fields, such as those in eco-cities.

All these solutions are "internet compatible".

For energy grid management, Alstom's "Smart Grid" offer makes use of Microsoft technologies, and includes a complete software suite that enables the following:

  • The integration of energy resources that are distributed via Smart Grid control centers (renewable energy, storage of electricity, smart charging for electric vehicles, active demand controls).
  • Real-time management of dynamic stability for energy grids in order to anticipate any blackout risks.
  • The implementation of new infrastructures for smart electrical substations to ensure greater energy efficiency for the full loop, from the power plant to the eco-neighborhood.

After 9 years of close cooperation, Alstom solutions based on Microsoft technologies have been implemented on all five continents:

Figure captions: 

Éolien = Wind turbines, Forêts = Forests, Réseau = Grid, Énergie = Power, Hydraulic = Hydro 

Ressources naturelles = Natural resources, Batiments = Buildings 

Power Plant References 

ESKOM (South Africa) 

Medupi (6 x 800 MW) and Kusile (6 x 799 MW):  The 2 largest thermal power plants operated by Eskom.

Koeberg 1&2 (2 x 900 MW)

  

Eon (Netherlands) 

  

Claus C (1 x 1200 MW), thermal power plant brought up to standard. Compliance with environmental standards is essential on the European market.

  

GDF Suez (France) 

DK6 Dunkerque, natural gas-firing power plant.  Implementation of smart communications with the trading and dispatching center.

  

EDF (France) 

  

Modernization of thermal power plants. Installation & inauguration of a simulator at the Arramont plant.

  

SCEC  

Saudi Consolidated  

Electric Company  

(Saudi Arabia) 

Shoaiba Stage 3 (3 x 397 MW). Control system for electrical power plant, with integrated controls for the desalination plant.

 

  

  

  

Energy Distribution References 

 

RTE (France) 

  

RTE operates France's electrical power grid.

Installation of a platform for monitoring the renewable energy produced by France's wind farms, with forecast capabilities.

  

Energynet.dk (Denmark) 

  

Denmark has more than 6,300 wind turbines that produce more than 20% of the country's total electrical power.

Implementation of a control system for the electrical grid, including management of wind turbine energy for the Danish national control center.

  

PJM (United States) 

PJM Interconnection manages energy dispatching in 13 states on the East Coast.

Installation of management software for a real-time market control system (Smart Dispatch), enabling continuous optimization of the energy flows for the system operated by PJM, with increased safety.  The latest upgrades on this crucial tool generate savings of approximately 100 million dollars per year for operating costs.

 

North China Grid (China) 

  

NCG operates the energy transport system for the North China Region.

Supply of a software management system ensuring the dynamic stability for the network (Online Stability) in order to anticipate blackout risks. The system was developed in particular to anticipate peak energy demands during the 2008 Olympic Games.

 

Duke Energy 

North Carolina (United States) 

Duke operates the Transport and Distribution Systems for the power grid in North Carolina, and has an ambitious goal:  to become a pioneer in the deployment of smart grids.

Supply of integrated management software for the Distribution System, capable of connecting the different types of distributed resources (wind turbines, solar power, electric vehicles, batteries connected to the grid), and to manage smart sensors located at different levels of the grid.

 

PNNL  

(United States) 

  

PNNL is coordinating the development of a smart grid demonstrator, overseen by the US Pacific Northwest in 5 states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), covering more than 60,000 customers.

Supply of a software system for controlling the smart grid, including real-time modeling of energy prices at different levels of the energy Transport and Distribution systems.

 

Alstom press contacts:

Emmanuelle Helleux: +33 1 49 01 70 87

Emmanuelle.helleux@alstom.com 

About Alstom 

Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, and provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services, including smart grids, for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind. The group employs approximately 96,000 people in more than 70 countries, and had revenues of more than €23 billion* in 2009/10.

* Pro forma data