Artificial Intelligence Could Have Helped Alleviate Suffering From Texas Blackouts

A powerful once-in-a-decade winter storm in February resulted in the near total collapse of Texas' power grid, resulting in residential and commercial areas suffering days-long blackouts, which led to at least 57 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage across the state's 254 counties. In addition, some Texans who did have power are facing overcharges of about $16 billion for electricity consumed during the weeklong crisis, according to a watchdog for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the quasi-governmental entity that oversees the Lone Star State's power grid. While debates as to the root causes of the grid's failure are likely to go on for months if not years, some energy experts contend that a potential solution exists that could have alleviated some of the worst effects of the power shutdown – the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into the management of the grid. Artificial Intelligence is loosely defined as the use of computer systems to process large volumes of data in order to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and decision-making. Although AI technology has been embraced by a number of other economic sectors, such as retail and insurance industries, the operators of the U.S. power grid have been slower to adopt it.