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Constellation, Microsoft in clean energy collaboration

Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Constellation is collaborating with Microsoft on the development of an energy matching technology to match a customer's power needs with local carbon-free energy sources. The real-time, data-driven carbon accounting solution will use hour-by-hour regional tracking giving customers clearer and more accurate data on their emissions impact and help to achieve zero-carbon goals, the company said.

Constellation, Microsoft in clean energy collaboration — (Image: Constellation)

Most current net-zero energy supply programmes aggregate clean energy megawatts over time, offsetting energy use through clean energy certificates or credits on an annual basis. Constellation's system will provide hour-by-hour regional tracking, matching customer needs with local carbon-free energy sources 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the company said.

The five-year collaboration with Microsoft aligns with both companies' commitment to advancing the transition to carbon-free energy, Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation. "Our collective expertise supports customers’ increasing need to understand and reduce their carbon footprints."

As well as collaborating with Constellation to develop the 24/7/365 solution, Microsoft will become one of its first customers, pioneering use of the new tools to intake, store, match and report emissions data on an hourly basis, Ravi Krishnaswamy, corporate vice president, Microsoft Cloud for Industry, said.

"Over time, we look forward to realising additional synergies between the two companies to further enhance our ability to serve our customers while advancing Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability."

The partnership with Microsoft is also a critical component of Constellation's planned submission in response to a December 2021 Request for Information from companies interested in supplying carbon-free electricity to US federal government facilities, Constellation said.

In addition, Microsoft will purchase a portion of its clean energy supply from Constellation over five years. The two companies will also, amongst other things, seek to use their customer bases and business partnerships to advance clean energy technology, including migration to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

Baltimore-headquartered Constellation was launched in January following the separation of Exelon's utility and competitive energy businesses. Its fleet of nuclear, hydro, wind and solar generation facilities provides 10% of all clean power on the US grid, and the company says it is the USA's largest producer of carbon-free energy. Its nuclear plants account for some 60% of its generating capacity and 86% of its output.