National Grid exploring the potential of Artificial Intelligence to optimise renewables

The National Grid has confirmed that it is in the "earliest stages" of discussions exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which could potentially maximise the use of renewable energy by predicting peaks in demand across the UK. The National Grid, which operates and owns the infrastructure that transports electricity across the UK, has seen its ability in balancing and stabilising the grid challenged in recent years as intermittent renewables such as solar and wind have been fed into the energy mix. While the introduction of renewables into the mix forms a key role in both national and European legislation to decarbonise the grid, concerns have been raised as to the National Grid's ability to deal with fluctuating wind and solar resources, which can sometimes produce more energy than the system can cope with. Energy storage and demand response initiatives, whereby businesses either store surplus energy or increase or reduce energy consumption based on demand, are being incorporated by the National Grid, which is now "exploring what opportunities" AI could offer to balance the situation. The National Grid revealed that it is in discussions with the UK-based AI company DeepMind about introducing new technologies to help balance the grid and improve the use of renewables.