AI to Help Power Grids Resist Disruptions

The U.S. Department of Energy will explore whether artificial intelligence could help electric grids handle power fluctuations, avoid failures, resist damage, and recover faster from major storms, cyberattacks, solar flares and other disruptions. A new project, called GRIP, for Grid Resilience and Intelligence Project, was awarded up to $6 million over three years on September 12 by the U.S. Department of Energy. GRIP is the first project to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help power grids deal with disturbances, says Sila Kiliccote, GRIP's principal investigator and director of the Grid Integration, Systems and Mobility lab at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif. GRIP will develop algorithms to learn how power grids work by analyzing smart meter data, utility-scale SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) data, electric vehicle charging data, and even satellite and street-view imagery. "By looking at satellite and street-view imagery, we can see where vegetation is growing with respect to power lines, how long it takes to grow, and anticipate what the effects of high winds might have on that vegetation, such as pulling trees onto power lines during storms," Kiliccote says.