If electricity is the life blood of the country, then the power grid is its arteries.
Don’t believe it? Just turn off the power for a couple of days. The effects would go way beyond spoiled leftovers, from nonfunctioning medical centers to blinking traffic lights. And with the rise of electric vehicles, the power grid is more important than ever.
That’s why a properly functioning — and secure — power grid is so important, and AI is playing a critical role. ORNL researchers are developing new technologies such as virtual models called digital twins — digital versions of the actual grid that allow researchers to study the effects of disruptions — to find sensitivities in the grid and identify potential breakdowns before they happen.
“There is big opportunity in using AI to better observe and manage the grid,” said Teja Kuruganti, section head for Advanced Computing Methods for Engineered Systems at ORNL. “In the future, AI can help decision-making before anything happens by looking at the sources of outages and then correlating and providing guidance on how to avoid them.”
The modern power grid is also becoming increasingly more distributed. Rather than have one centralized location where power is controlled, energy sources such as rooftop solar panels mean energy is sourced over many locations.
“That’s where AI plays a big role,” Kuruganti said. “It can help us reduce the amount of data that comes in to information that’s actionable.”