Partnerships for a sustainable future at Microsoft Inspire and Reuters Global Energy Transition 2023

As urgency builds for secure, equitable, and sustainable energy, the industry faces unprecedented pressure to transform. Approximately one billion people lack stable or affordable access to power, and global consumption is expected to increase nearly 50 percent by 2050.¹ And as energy consumption rises, so do greenhouse gases, with the energy sector contributing to more than 70 percent of global carbon emissions.²

The energy sector is at the forefront of innovation to help solve these challenges and develop new solutions to accelerate decarbonization and the movement toward clean, renewable sources of energy. Momentum is also building for decentralized models of production and distribution, with distributed energy generation such as local microgrids. To speed innovation, energy organizations are migrating to the cloud and integrating Microsoft technologies to liberate, unify, and contextualize data and developing solutions that leverage AI, predictive analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twins.

But technology is only part of the solution. Collaboration with industry leaders and our global partner ecosystem is critical for solving complex global energy challenges.

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Making your data work for you at Reuters Global Energy Transitions 2023

We recently participated in the Reuters Global Energy Transitions 2023 on June 7 and 8 in New York City, which convened energy executives from around the world to talk about challenges and opportunities in the energy transition. From the Microsoft Energy and Resources team, Hanna Grene, Worldwide Power and Utilities Industry Leader and Ravi Mundhe, Director Energy and Resources, were joined by digital leaders from our partners Cognite and Schneider Electric to lead a discussion on how energy companies can improve their digital strategy through innovative data and analytics.

During our workshop, energy executives representing energy production, generation, transmission, and distribution companies, shared data priorities and best practices on advancing analytics and automation to achieve net-zero objectives. The workshop also examined how organizations can reinvigorate their digital strategy with data optimization techniques and assess digital capabilities and risks with AI.

To learn more about energy trends and partner innovations, read Hanna Grene’s Innovation in power and utilities blog, and watch two new video series on how data and analytics are shaping the energy transition: Top Trends in Energy and the latest episode of The Short Circuit, where I sit down with Jason Wight, Chief Information Officer of OPG, who talks about the benefits of a strong partnership built on shared values driving digital innovation, including large language models, and business results at pace and scale.

Celebrating our partners at Microsoft Inspire 2023

Each year at Microsoft Inspire we celebrate our partners and their latest innovations to help our customers achieve more. Once again, we’re looking forward to connecting with the energy sector on July 18 and 19, 2023 and you’re invited to join us at Microsoft Inspire 2023. At our largest partner event of the year, learn how Microsoft and its global partner ecosystem are accelerating the ideation, development, and deployment of technology solutions in the collective journey towards a secure, equitable, and sustainable energy future.

This year, we are pleased to announce SLB as the Energy and Resources Partner of the Year for revolutionizing their DELFI platform built on Azure Data Manager for Energy and leveraging high-performance computing (HPC) and AI to optimize simulation workflows for energy exploration, development, and carbon storage. SLB has been a leader in digital transformation with top energy operators and Microsoft technology at the center of this journey. Through our strong partnership and collaboration, SLB and Microsoft enable customers to spend less time on operations and more time focusing on the greater industry mission of addressing the growing energy demand crisis the world is facing.

We are also pleased to share our finalists Cognite, Neudesic, and Schneider Electric for their transformative solutions to maximize efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability across the energy value chain. Partnering with Microsoft, Cognite helps solve the industrial data problem and accelerate the full-scale digital transformation that improves the dependability and sustainability of operations. Neudesic and Microsoft are innovating solutions that help power and utilities maximize grid resiliency, outage restoration, and the transition to clean energy. Together with Microsoft, Schneider Electric is electrifying and digitizing energy, helping customers achieve both energy and sustainability goals from strategy to execution to unlock the grid of the future.

Be sure to tune in to Microsoft Inspire 2023 on July 18, where we sit down with Cognite and Schneider Electric to hear about their partner experiences and learnings.

During Microsoft Inspire 2023 you’ll discover how the Microsoft Cloud can power the energy industry’s AI transformation. Recognizing the importance of the cloud in driving digital transformation, sustainability, and business growth, we commissioned Forrester Consulting to survey energy executives on the benefits and impact of moving to an open, cloud-based platform. According to the 2023 survey, expected benefits of cloud migration include better data management and insights, lower costs, and higher operational efficiency and security. To learn more about cloud migration in the energy industry, download this Forrester infographic.

The power of partnerships and co-innovation

As energy companies continue to evolve, we work closely with our partners to help customers in several key areas including:

Intelligent grid solutions that improve reliability and efficiency throughout the grid lifecycle with decentralized energy generation, renewables integration, and customer-centric services.
Innovating in an interactive digital space of the industrial metaverse by combining digital twins, IoT, AI, and augmented reality.
Microsoft Fabric to connect every data source and analytics service together on a single, AI-powered platform.
Advancing energy transition solutions with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to record, report, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerable low-and no-carbon energy sources.

Together with our partners, we also recently launched the Energy Transition Center of Excellence at the Houston Microsoft Technology Center (MTC). The Center of Excellence showcases leading energy transition solutions to provide customers an opportunity to learn first-hand the solutions offered by Microsoft and our global partner ecosystem to accelerate decarbonization and net-zero objectives. The center’s partner technologies include hydrogen production, offshore wind optimization, emissions management, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), home energy management, and repowering coal plants. Watch the Energy Transition Center of Excellence video to learn more.

Working together for a sustainable future

From individual consumers to global corporations, we must all work together for solutions that advance us toward a cleaner, sustainable future for all. We’re excited to continue to co-innovate with our partners and customers to meet the needs of the ever-evolving energy industry and the world we live in.