German utility RWE announces partnership with tech giant Amazon
The German utility RWE announced on Thursday a strategic framework deal with tech giant Amazon, in which the utility will deliver clean energy and receive cloud services in exchange.
Cloud services include artificial intelligence and data analysis in exchange for electricity provided by RWE's solar and wind facilities. Some of these are already operational and others are in construction.
CONTEXT
RWE, a major utility company in Europe, has a portfolio of renewable energies in operation or in development that it can sell to Amazon and other hyperscalers in data centres to help them reach their green energy goals.
RWE stated that the partnership announcement was just a beginning, and they expect to deepen their ties between both companies.
KEY QUOTES
Simon Stanton is the head of Global Partnerships and Transactions at RWE.
He added that these longer-term options included the development of renewables and power purchase agreements. They also enabled the building out of AWS data centre infrastructure.
Ulf Kerstin is the Chief Commercial Officer at RWE Supply & Trading. He said that digitalization and electrification also drive up electricity demand.
He added, "Our portfolio of flexible and renewable energy is perfectly suited to meeting this demand."
By the Numbers
The statement stated that Amazon had contracted with RWE to purchase renewable energy in seven separate power purchase agreements.
RWE's Supply & Trading Division has also migrated mission critical applications to AWS Cloud Services, including its Energy Trading and Risk Management Platform, enabling 30% improvements in performance with end of day runtimes.
What's Next?
The announcement stated that Amazon would continue to support RWE in its innovation, including trading, commercial asset optimization, renewable energy, and AI applications for energy.
It said that the collaboration would deepen its ties with RWE's AI Research Laboratory, located in Seattle. This will help to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced AI forecasting model through cloud elasticity and large computing power. (Reporting and editing by Emelia Sithole Matarise; Forrest Crellin)
(source: Reuters)
