Benzinga | Aug 23, 2021 03:45PM EDT

Duke Energy Partners With Accenture, Microsoft For Methane-Emissions Monitoring Platform

* Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) is working with Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) on the development of a new technology platform designed to measure actual baseline methane emissions from natural gas distribution systems.

* The platform will provide near-real-time data collection, allowing Duke Energy's field response teams to identify and repair methane leaks rapidly.

* The cloud-hosted platform will track and prioritize data associated with leaks using advanced detection methods such as satellites, fixed-wing aircraft, and ground-level sensing technology.

* Accenture, in collaboration with Avanade, its joint venture with Microsoft, will help design the Microsoft Azure-based platform to handle a high volume of data from various sources.

* Duke Energy anticipates implementing its methane-monitoring platform by October 2021.

* "This platform will re-imagine how natural gas local distribution companies calculate methane emissions and perform leak surveys and improve the expediency in which leaks may be repaired, resulting in dramatically lower methane emissions," commented Brian Weisker, senior vice president and chief operations officer, natural gas at Duke Energy.

* Price Action: DUK shares are trading lower by 1.13% at $106.00, ACN higher by 0.26% at $333.51, and MSFT higher by 0.17% at $304.88 on the last check Monday.