Virtual Power Plant - Solving renewable energy challenges with the Azure IoT

Did you know that Hawaii has a plan to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2045? The challenge with power grid is that too much generation can overwhelm the grid while insufficient generation leaves utility companies scrambling for backup solutions. To solve those challenges, Steffes wanted to create an affordable and efficient way to store and use excess energy. Steffes designed the Grid-Interactive Electric Thermal Storage (GETS) system with help from Microsoft partner, Mesh Systems, and also took advantage of Microsoft Orleans, an open source framework from Microsoft Research that is used to build distributed interactive applications. The Orleans framework enabled Steffes to create virtual, in-memory copies of physical devices governed by complex business logic (like a mapping of virtual power plant to a real one). By using Azure IoT technologies to connect ordinary consumer devices like water heaters, Steffes is empowering home owners to help write the next chapter on sustainability. Click here to learn more: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=26745