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As power systems decarbonize and decentralize, utilities are under pressure to innovate faster than ever to meet the challenges of the evolving grid. Cloud-based digitalization empowers utilities to optimize new mixes of renewable resources, re-imagine customer engagement, and transform systems with the flexibility required for the future.

How Cloud Enables Utility Decarbonization and Flexibility

The Acceleration of Decarbonization

Decarbonization is picking up momentum across the United States, enabled by the falling costs of renewable energy, maturing distributed energy resource technologies, and policy commitments by states and cities to reduce the carbon intensity of our power systems.

U.S. States with Clean Electricity Mandates & Utilities with Decarbonization Goals, 2019

States With Clean Electricity Mandates ≥ 50%

Utilities With Decarbonization Goals

The cloud enables utilities to meet the demands of our decarbonizing power systems. As the penetration of DERs increases, utilities must rapidly build the capacity to incorporate and monitor thousands of new behind-the-meter assets such as batteries, rooftop solar systems, and EV charging. Migration to the cloud can unlock the scale, flexibility, and agility utilities need to effectively manage these assets – and realize cost and power savings in the process.

Operating at the Speed of Cloud

AWS is helping utilities realize their visions for a decarbonized, decentralized future.

Download AWS’s new mini brief to take a deeper dive into the journey to cloud-based digitalization.

Through a cloud-first approach, utilities can tap into the growing ecosystem of smart home services to offer more robust digital experiences to residential customers. Over 30 million US households now own at least one smart home device.

The Power of Smart Homes

These devices, coupled with cloud-based solutions, enable utilities to create new touchpoints with customers and connect them with opportunities to save on their electricity bills.

Click on highlighted features for more information.

Entertainment

Energy Management

Convenience & Connectivity

Security

Target Year

State Goals

2030

Goals

50% zero-carbon electricity

Details

Non-binding goal of 100% by 2050

State Goals

44% required by 2024, 52% required by 2027, and 60% required by 2030

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

Los Angeles Dept of Water and Power

Target Year: 2050

State Goals

100% net-zero emissions by 2050

Reduce 1 million tons of GHG emissions from company operations by the end of 2022, and 40% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2030

Target Year: 2022

Pacific Gas & Electric

Net-zero carbon emissions by 2040

Target Year: 2040

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

40% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2030, and 80% reduction by 2050

Target Year: 2030

Southern California Edison

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Applies to qualifying retail utilities with 500k customers or more

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2050

Target Year

Utilities Goals

70% reduction in GHG emissions from 2014 levels by 2030

Target Year: 2030

Holy Cross Energy

100% non-carbon energy mix by 2030

Target Year: 2030

Platte River Power Authority

80% carbon-free energy by 2030

Target Year: 2030

Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association

80% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, and 100% carbon free electricity by 2050

Target Year: 2030

Xcel Energy

State Goals

30% required by 2020, 40% required by 2030, and 70% required by 2040

Details

100% renewable generation

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

100% carbon-free power by 2050

Target Year: 2032

Arizona Public Service

62% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2035, and 90% reduction by 2050

Target Year: 2035

Salt River Project

Carbon neutral by 2045

Target Year: 2045

Hawaiian Electric

State Goals

3,000 MW of installed wind capacity required by 2020 and 8,000 MW required by 2030

Details

100% renewable generation

Goals

2050

Target Year

State Goals

By 2030, 14.5% of an electricity supplier's retail sales must come from solar power 400 MW of installed offshore wind capacity required by 2026 and 1,200 MW required by 2030

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2030

Target Year

State Goals

1,600 MW of solar required by 2020

Details

35% renewable generation by 2030, and an additional 1% each year after

Goals

2030

Target Year

Utilities Goals

45% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 and 80% reduction by 2050

Target Year: 2020

National Grid

State Goals

Utilities Goals

Net-zero carbon emissions by 2040

Target Year: 2040

Consumers Energy

50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, 80% reduction by 2040, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

Target Year: 2023

DTE Energy

Utilities Goals

33% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2000 levels by 2022, 60% reduction in SO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2022, and 80% reduction in NOx emissions from 2005 levels by 2022

Target Year: 2022

Otter Tail Power Company

Utilities Goals

35% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, 50% reduction by 2040, and 80% reduction by 2050

Target Year: 2030

Ameren Corporation

80% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2050

Target Year: 2050

Evergy

State Goals

3,500 MW of offshore wind required

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2030

Target Year

Utilities Goals

80% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2046, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

Target Year: 2046

Public Service Electric & Gas

State Goals

40% required by 2025 and 80% required by 2040

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

70% emissions-free energy by 2032, and 100% emissions-free energy by 2040

Target Year: 2032

Public Service Company Of New Mexico

State Goals

70% required by 2030. Includes nuclear

Details

100% zero-emissions electricity

Goals

2040

Target Year

Utilities Goals

25% reduction in carbon emissions from 2015 levels by 2020, and carbon-neutral by 2035

Target Year: 2020

Avangrid

State Goals

Carbon-free electricity by 2040

Target Year: 2040

New York Power Authority

Utilities Goals

At least a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

Target Year: 2030

Duke Energy

Utilities Goals

70% reduction in carbon emissions from 2000 levels by 2030 and 80% reduction by 2050

Target Year: 2030

American Electric Power

90% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2045

Target Year: 2045

FirstEnergy Corp.

State Goals

By 2025 at least 8% of aggregate electrical capacity must come from small-scale community renewable energy projects with a capacity of 20 MW or less

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2040

Target Year

Utilities Goals

60% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030

Target Year: 2030

PacifiCorp

"80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050. Eliminate coal from energy mix by 2030"

Target Year: 2050

Portland General Electric

State Goals

Goal achieved

Details

10,000 MW renewable generation

Goals

2025

Target Year

Utilities Goals

100% carbon-free electricity by 2035

Target Year: 2035

Austin Energy

25% reduction in carbon footprint from 2015 levels by 2025, and a 40% reduction by 2035

Target Year: 2025

El Paso Electric

50% reduction in CO2 intensity from 2000 levels by 2030

Target Year: 2030

Entergy Texas

State Goals

10% must come from new, in-state, renewable generation at customer-sited facilities smaller than 5 MW. Excludes nuclear

Details

75% renewable generation

Goals

2032

Target Year

Utilities Goals

100% carbon-free energy by 2025

Target Year: 2025

Green Mountain Power

State Goals

Excludes existing nuclear

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2050

Target Year

Utilities Goals

70% reduction in carbon intensity from 2016 levels by 2030

Target Year: 2030

AES Corporation

Net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

Target Year: 2050

Dominion Virginia Power

State Goals

Standard is applicable to all utilities that serve more than 25,000 customers.

Details

100% zero-emissions electricity

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

Carbon-neutral electricity supply by the end of 2027, and 100% clean energy by 2045

Target Year: 2027

Avista Utilities

50% reduction in carbon footprint by 2040

Target Year: 2040

Puget Sound Energy

Net-zero GHG emissions achieved in 2005

Target Year: 2005

Seattle City Light

98% carbon-free electricity by 2019

Target Year: 2019

Snohomish County PUD

State Goals

Utilities Goals

40% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and 80% reduction by 2050. Eliminate coal from energy mix by 2050

Target Year: 2030

Alliant Energy

Net-zero carbon electricity by 2050

Target Year: 2050

Madison Gas & Electric Company

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Entertainment

Residences can integrate intelligent entertainment devices such as smart TVs, whole-home audio systems, and media servers into the smart home ecosystem, contributing to a more comprehensive system of home energy management.

Entertainment

Security

Smart home security systems allow customers to integrate devices such as smart cameras and locks, advanced door and window sensors, and smoke/CO detectors into a streamlined and customizable home security network.

Security

A wide range of intelligent and programmable devices offer users more control over their energy use, such as smart thermostats, grid-interactive water heaters, and daylight- and occupancy-sensing lights.

Energy Management

Voice assistants can control other smart home devices and serve as an intuitive medium for utilities to offer services to customers. Through their smart speakers, utility customers might pay bills, report outages, receive energy tips, and sign up for impactful programs like energy efficiency and demand response.

Convenience & Connectivity

Energy Management

Utilities are increasingly looking to leverage cloud and cloud services to better support their business operations, to better connect and enable their customers, but also to take advantage of some of the security and resilience benefits.

Leveraging AWS Security Investments

Click on highlighted areas for more information.

Case studies

EDF Energy’s PowerShift platform, powered by AWS services, reduced deployment times from days to 14 minutes.

Enel saved 21 percent on computing and 60 percent on storage costs with AWS while reducing provisioning time from four weeks to two days.

Xylem accelerated solution innovation with AWS data lakes and solved customer problems faster.

Security is a critical priority for utilities as they prepare to manage increasingly complex networks of distributed energy assets. Cloud-based services can offer utilities robust global security and compliance controls designed to meet the challenges of the changing cybersecurity threat landscape.

With AWS security, you’re going to see the similar security measures that you would have in the data centers, such as physical server security, physical security controls, server isolation, isolation of the network, and isolation of storage.

What’s important here and what I really wanted to get across is – utilities – you don’t have to do this alone, there are resources available for you, and really ready to help enable you to meet your security and resiliency objectives.

AWS supports sensitive security requirements across the globe for critical infrastructure customers as well as public sector or government entities across the globe.

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020E

2021E

2022E

2023E

2024E

2025E

Battery Storage

EV Infrastructure

Connected Devices

Distributed Solar

Customer-Sited Solar Cumulative Impact, Gigawatts (GW)

INTRODUCTION

THE ACCELERATION OF DECARBONIZATION

Operating at the Speed of Cloud

The Power of Smart Homes

Leveraging AWS Security Investments

Cumulative behind-the-meter residential and non-residential distributed solar installations are expected to continue to grow steadily

Residential smart thermostats and grid-interactive water heaters alone are forecasted to have a total load management potential of 47 GW by 2025 in the U.S.

Residential Connected Devices Cumulative Impact, Gigawatts (GW)

Residential and non-residential behind-the-meter battery storage capacity is projected to accelerate

Battery Storage Cumulative Impact, Gigawatts (GW)

Public, workplace, and residential charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is rapidly expanding in the U.S.

EV Infrastructure Cumulative Impact, Gigawatts (GW)

Growth of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) in the U.S.

Distributed Solar

EV Infrastructure

Battery Storage

Connected Devices

Source: Wood Mackenzie

Learn more

Download Now

Get AWS’s utility executive’s guide to cloud security.

Learn more

ENGIE reduced its primary SAP S/4HANA database from 4TB to 2TB on AWS.

Learn more

Madrileña Red de Gas migrated to AWS cloud in under 100 days.

AWS is helping utilities with resources and support to move to the cloud securely and confidently.

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020E

2021E

2022E

2023E

2024E

2025E

Source: Wood Mackenzie

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020E

2021E

2022E

2023E

2024E

2025E

Source: Wood Mackenzie

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020E

2021E

2022E

2023E

2024E

2025E

Source: Wood Mackenzie

Arizona

California

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Colorado

Applies to qualifying retail utilities with 500k customers or more

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2050

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Hawaii

30% required by 2020, 40% required by 2030, and 70% required by 2040

Details

100% renewable generation

Goals

2045

Target Year

State Goals

Maine

3,000 MW of installed wind capacity required by 2020 and 8,000 MW required by 2030

Details

100% renewable generation

Goals

2050

Target Year

By 2030, 14.5% of an electricity supplier's retail sales must come from solar power 400 MW of installed offshore wind capacity required by 2026 and 1,200 MW required by 2030

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2030

Target Year

State Goals

Maryland

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Massachusetts

1,600 MW of solar required by 2020

Details

35% renewable generation by 2030, and an additional 1% each year after

Goals

2030

Target Year

Utilities Goals

Michigan

Utilities Goals

Minnesota

Utilities Goals

Missouri

Non-binding goal of 100% by 2050

Details

50% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2030

Target Year

State Goals

Nevada

Utilities Goals

State Goals

New Jersey

3,500 MW of offshore wind required

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2030

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

New Mexico

40% required by 2025 and 80% required by 2040

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

New York

70% required by 2030. Includes nuclear

Details

100% zero-emissions electricity

Goals

2040

Target Year

Utilities Goals

North Carolina

Utilities Goals

Ohio

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Oregon

By 2025 at least 8% of aggregate electrical capacity must come from small-scale community renewable energy projects with a capacity of 20 MW or less

Details

50% renewable generation

Goals

2040

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Texas

Goal achieved

Details

10,000 MW renewable generation

Goals

2025

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Vermont

10% must come from new, in-state, renewable generation at customer-sited facilities smaller than 5 MW. Excludes nuclear

Details

75% renewable generation

Goals

2032

Target Year

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Virginia

Details

100% zero-carbon electricity

Goals

2050

Target Year

Excludes existing nuclear

Utilities Goals

State Goals

Washington

Standard is applicable to all utilities that serve more than 25,000 customers.

Details

100% zero-emissions electricity

Goals

2045

Target Year

Utilities Goals

Wisconsin

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