NextEra Energy’s Real Plan for Real Zero™
Rick Walker
October 6, 2022
Our commitment to reaching Real Zero by 2045 starts with decarbonizing our own operations. We’ve been working toward this goal for decades developing NextEra 360™ for our internal use. NextEra 360 is a comprehensive energy optimization software platform that has helped us perfect our short and long-term energy plans by tracking carbon accountability goals, reducing energy costs, procuring cleaner power, and maximizing value from our renewable energy assets. We are now commercializing NextEra 360 to help commercial customers replicate our success.
At NextEra, we develop, construct, and operate power projects to produce electricity. We provide electricity to wholesale customers, invest in critical infrastructure for power delivery, and we offer energy-related products and services to our customers. We are dedicated to quality, committed to environmental stewardship, and care about our communities.
As the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun, with over 50 GW of operational renewables amounting to over $130 billion in assets, NextEra Energy continues to pioneer the decarbonization movement and aims to become the preferred partner for businesses across industries who share our vision of a sustainable, carbon-free future.
NextEra’s in-house team of analytics and software experts is NextEra Analytics. NextEra Analytics handles energy management from generation to consumption to solve some of the hardest problems facing the energy industry today. NextEra Analytics, leveraging 15+ years of experience in software controls, storage optimization, and data science, built the NextEra 360™ platform as the most comprehensive energy management solution to track emissions goals, reduce energy costs, procure cleaner power, and maximize renewable asset value. NextEra 360 helps commercial and industrial customers reveal real savings, achieve real results, and reach their net zero or Real Zero commitments.
Rich Argentieri, NextEra Analytics President, explains, “The energy industry maintains a massive role in improving the health and safety of our planet. We have led by example for decades. Now NextEra 360 software is available to all commercial and industrial customers to help them solve their most pressing energy and sustainability problems.”
“At the same time,” Mr. Argentieri adds, “we are collaborating with software developers in multiple industries to develop integrations that expand our software platform marketplace. It is an exciting time for NextEra as we expand our Software Developer Program, and develop NextEra 360 to enable Real Zero for the US economy for a more sustainable and carbon-free future.
NextEra 360 data scientists, meteorologists, and power system design authorities identify ways to help perfect customers’ energy strategies utilizing a full-circle approach with sophisticated software tools for integrated resource design and optimized energy management, asset performance and smart grid analytics.
Integrated resource design capabilities enable customers to understand actionable steps they need to take to meet their energy and sustainability goals with advanced energy portfolio planning expertise.
Optimized energy management software helps customers lower energy costs and maximize revenue from renewable assets such as wind, solar, and battery storage sites. Features such as automatic dispatching boost equipment performance with improved battery charge and discharge schedules, allowing for added value capture in Demand Response programs. The automatic trading feature of the platform generates smart market bids into various energy markets based on load, capacity, and market conditions to capture additional revenue.
NextEra 360's Automatic Trader recently helped California manage record high electricity demands as a heat wave rolled through the state. CAISO issued ten consecutive flex alerts urging consumers to conserve electricity as real-time energy market prices reached over $1,000/MWh on four of those ten flex alert days. The extreme fluctuation in prices allowed Automatic Trader an opportunity to maximize profits by trading stored energy when the market needed it most.
Monitoring asset performance is critical to improving operational efficiency. NextEra 360 currently analyzes over 23 billion data points daily that allow asset operators to track, predict, and optimize the performance of renewable technologies, extending beyond preventative maintenance into a deeper systematic understanding of renewable resource and expected technological performance.
Smart grid analytics solutions improve system visibility and maximize resiliency for grid operators. For example, the Meter Analytics User Interface allows businesses to visualize a system, detect problems, improve reliability, and reduce operations and maintenance costs for both electrical and water systems.
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About the Author
Rick Walker
NextEra Analytics
Rick Walker is the Director of Science at NextEra Analytics (NEA). NEA is a wholly-owned, independent subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources – the world’s leading generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Rick and his team are responsible
for delivering business value and increasing profitability through scientific principles, research and development, optimization, and advanced analytics for new and existing products.
When Rick joined NEA in 2005 as a Meteorologist, he was responsible for the execution and improvement of the wind resource assessment and wind farm design process for internal and external customers. Since then, he has held analytical- and leader-based roles in virtually every part of the company and is responsible for developing and advancing many of the core products being used today.
Rick’s core strengths are applied meteorology, numerical weather prediction modeling and data analysis. Rick is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist through the American Meteorological Society and holds a B.S. in Meteorology from Millersville University and a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from University of Wyoming.
When Rick joined NEA in 2005 as a Meteorologist, he was responsible for the execution and improvement of the wind resource assessment and wind farm design process for internal and external customers. Since then, he has held analytical- and leader-based roles in virtually every part of the company and is responsible for developing and advancing many of the core products being used today.
Rick’s core strengths are applied meteorology, numerical weather prediction modeling and data analysis. Rick is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist through the American Meteorological Society and holds a B.S. in Meteorology from Millersville University and a M.S. in Atmospheric Science from University of Wyoming.