PREDICTIVE AI
enhances the sector ’ s overall resilience and subsequent operations .
“ A big risk to the energy sector is energy imbalance ,” Gault critiques . “ The ability to accurately forecast is imperative to being able to mitigate supply-demand imbalance . Extreme weather not only impacts supply and demand profiles but can damage power lines and prevent power plants from operating properly . There are certain innovative projects , such as one by Scottish Power , that are aiming to better predict when extreme weather events will lead to power outages and where these outages will occur to provide them with enhanced intelligence .” Wilson concurs , signposting the industry to understand that , to properly be conscious of the application of predictive AI , there must be a process of subdividing the categories of risk – on top of the others previously mentioned , including physical risks of climate change which put infrastructure at risk .
He elaborates : “ Combine this with geology information which shows us that some buried assets are more at risk than others .”
“ Other AI systems will be responsible for predicting the greatest pinch points in the grid so that new developments do not create local resilience problems . In other words : the UK energy grid is highly resilient today , but AI can help maintain that resilience while dealing with increased renewable generation and its fluctuating output . We only want fossil fuel capacity online when it ’ s needed , but it takes time to bring this capacity online .”
This is where detailed AI predictions about supply and demand can help optimise this process , Wilson shares , adding that as this trend is more widely adopted the energy industry will be able to make use of alternative datasets from outside the sector to make it stronger , and more resilient , than ever .
Gault concludes : “ The use of predictive AI is already prevalent in many new projects , however , it is still in the emerging technologies phase and needs to overcome the challenges of scaling up . That is where a lot of digitalisation of the energy sector will focus over the coming year . The industry has started to envision a digital twin of the energy system where predictive AI and open data combine to better plan and operate a much more distributed and flexible energy system .”
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