Constellation Energy forms partnership with Microsoft to help companies track clean energy use

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy has joined forces with Microsoft to create technology to help large commercial customers reach clean energy goals.

The technology will allow commercial customers and others to match their energy needs with locally produced clean energy. The technology will work 24 hours a day to match a customer's power needs with local, carbon-free energy sources.

Constellation became a stand-alone public energy company last month—and the largest public company headquartered in Baltimore—after separating from Exelon Corp., the owner of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Exelon had announced plans about a year ago to split its utilities and power-generation businesses to better unlock the value in each enterprise. Exelon, based in Chicago, owns BGE and five other regulated utilities.

Constellation is promoting the new technology as a way to help companies move toward zero emissions goals. It would allow customers to get clean energy from their local grid rather than buying renewable energy credits, which often represents energy produced farther away and not the power they actually use.

Commercial customers get credit for clean energy by purchasing those annual energy certificates or credits, but there is no accounting of when or where the energy was produced.

Software the companies are designing would give customers real-time and independently verified views of their sustainability efforts, providing more accurate data on their emissions impact.

"This Microsoft partnership aligns with both companies' commitment to advancing the critical transition to carbon-free energy," Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez said. "Our collective expertise supports customers' increasing need to understand and reduce their carbon footprints."

Demand for such real-time energy tools is growing, Constellation said.

In December, the federal government issued an executive order requiring federal government facilities to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030.

After the new technology is available, Microsoft expects to become one of Constellation's first customers, said Ravi Krishnaswamy, corporate vice president of Microsoft Cloud for Industry.

Microsoft would use the technology to track its own energy by gathering, storing, matching and reporting emissions data on an hourly basis. Microsoft also agreed to buy a portion of its clean energy supply from Constellation over five years.