At the Distributech conference in Orlando, the podcast explores the impact of AI on the energy industry. Discussions include the need for more power for AI applications, AI tools for grid management, and breakthroughs in nuclear power with AI. Industry leaders like Hussein Shel and Zack Kass discuss opportunities and challenges of AI, and the potential for energy abundance with advanced AI systems.
AI transforms the electricity sector with advanced applications for grid optimization.
Utilities must strategically integrate automation alongside AI to enhance operational efficiency.
Collaborative efforts between tech companies aim to address utility industry challenges for faster adaptation.
Deep dives
The Potential of AI in Energy Industry
AI is widely discussed as a transformative technology in the energy sector, offering new opportunities for electricity management and grid optimizations. Companies like AWS are focusing on practical applications of AI, aiming to make Gen.VI technology secure, flexible, and capable for customer needs. While the industry has seen many proofs of concepts in 2023, 2024 is expected to witness significant deployments of AI solutions, such as Gen.A.I.-based code suggestion systems that enhance productivity in engineering development.
Challenges and Benefits of Implementing AI in Energy Utilities
AI and ML are buzzwords in the energy industry, but utilities must consider where automation, not just AI, can bring operational benefits. Ensuring a strategic approach to automation is crucial, with a focus on foundational aspects like asset registry cleanup before diving into advanced AI applications for tasks like inspections and optimization. Data security, cybersecurity, and process efficiency are highlighted as key concerns before fully leveraging the potential of AI in utility operations.
Balancing the Integration of AI and Automation in Utility Grids
Ensuring a balanced approach to integrating AI and automation in utility grids is essential to avoid risks like false positives in inspections. Utilities need to carefully train and retrain AI models to prevent costly errors and prioritize material benefits aligned with long-term strategies. A methodical rollout of AI technologies, testing, and continuous improvement are critical to maximizing the benefits of automation while prioritizing safety and grid stability for customers.
Expediting Grid Modernization Through Collaboration
Technology is advancing faster than utilities can adapt, leading to collaboration between technology companies like ITRON and Schneider Electric to pre-integrate solutions for utilities. The focus is on providing visibility into distributed energy resources close to consumers, enhancing capabilities to control load demands, and optimizing energy consumption. This collaborative approach aims to address the utility industry's need for faster response to increasing demand and rapid technological changes.
Challenges and Innovations in the Utility Industry
The utility industry faces challenges in adapting to a changing landscape with a surge in demand for power driven by factors like AI data centers, manufacturing, and electric vehicles. Managing renewable energy sources on the grid poses additional hurdles. Digitalization emerges as a crucial solution, offering tools for grid resiliency, real-time demand-supply balance, and enhanced visibility. Despite the slow pace of progress, industry stakeholders are urged to embrace new thinking in business models and regulatory approaches to expedite grid modernization.
What AI means for the energy transition in the electricity industry
Welcome to a special episode of Wood Mackenzie's The Energy Gang, recorded at the Distributech 2024 conference in Orlando. Distributech is the leading event in North America for the electricity transmission and distribution industry. It provides a fantastic opportunity to talk to the companies that provide technology for moving and managing electricity, and to the utilities and other companies that use that technology.
The impact of artificial intelligence is one of the central themes of the conference, and host Ed Crooks has been meeting industry leaders to discuss the implications of AI and other new technologies for the future of electricity. From the need for more power to supply data centers for AI applications, to the potential for AI tools for managing the grid, to the possible breakthroughs in nuclear power that could be discovered using AI, the speakers explore a vast range of possibilities.
Hussein Shel, chief technologist for AWS (Amazon Web Services), talks about both the opportunities and the challenges of the new types of AI. Zack Kass, a futurist who was formerly a senior executive at OpenAI, discusses the prospect of an age of “energy abundance” that could be unlocked by sophisticated AI. He argues that abundance, possibly provided by nuclear fusion power, will be the way that the world can meet the increased demand for power created by advanced AI systems.
Quinn Nakayama, the senior director of Grid Research Innovation and Development at the California utility PG&E, talks about the practical decisions involved in adopting AI technologies in today’s utilities. Tom Deitrich, chief executive of Itron, a supplier of technologies for utilities and cities to manage energy, water and traffic, joins Ed to discuss the increasingly urgent need for more advanced technologies in grid management. And finally, Anthony Allard, the head of Hitachi Energy’s North American business, talks about what they have been hearing from their customers in terms of two critical issues in the industry: the progress of digitalization, and shortages of critical equipment in the supply chain.
You can find us on most platforms: we’re @theenergygang. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss the next one, out every second Tuesday.
