AI comes to California’s electric grid

Artificial intelligence has affected almost every aspect of the global economy and is now expanding into California’s electric grid.

California Independent Systems Operator, who manages approximately 80% of Golden State and some of Nevada’s power systems, has agreed to launch a pilot program that uses AI software programs designed by Open Access Technology International Inc., aimed at operating the operations of California ISO businesses more efficiently.

The Minnesota-based company known for short, says, “To our knowledge, this is the first example of AI that supports real-world grid operations.”

OATI’s artificial intelligence software system, called Genie, focuses on strengthening California ISO’s outage management system.

Not much known to typical utility customers, but a system operator known as CAISO for hundreds of planned outages of transmission lines and generators, such as repairing equipment and maintaining lines and “emissioning” lines to reduce power capacity in cases such as strong winds and heat.

“There are many ongoing challenges for operators that plan to manage these outages routinely encounter with operators,” said Abhi Thakur, Vice President of Platform, Visualization and Analytics at Oachi.

Every day around 6pm, the grid manager will report planned outages that are scheduled the following day. Suck text keywords and more to calculate how a downed line or transformer affects the power source. It’s an important task, but it can be a hassle when it’s hard.

Under the pilot, the Genie software program uses generator AI (which leverages machine learning models trained on vast data sets) and agent AI (a system designed to act autonomously and take action with minimal human intervention).

“AI can aggregate meaningful and important information and analysis and present it to you, so you need to focus on the important parts and reduce all the overhead of looking for unnecessary information,” Thakur said in an interview with the Union Tribune.

Genie is designed as a tool to help California ISOs manage unplanned transmission grid outages rather than the distribution-level power outages that the public experiences.

If the pilot program proves successful, there will certainly be future implications for AI to be used to improve operational efficiency and reduce the risk of unplanned power outages across the grid operator service area.

The Genie platform can also be used, for example, to compare past outages with future outages that use the same equipment and perform cross-checks.

“If there is a mismatch, the Genie Assistant can flag the grid operator in the report, Thakur said.

The pilot program was announced earlier this week at a massive transmission, distribution and utility conference held in Minneapolis.

Officials from the California ISO highlighted Ginny’s potential to improve situational awareness among grid operators and free time to tackle other important items.

“This initiative is perfectly suited to the ongoing modernization programme of the Control Centre,” Khaed Abdul Rahman, Chief Information Technology Officer at Kaiso, said in a statement.

The Genie Pilot program is expected to be implemented by early next year, and California ISO officials will set timelines and criteria to determine whether the project is considered a success.

Thakur said Oati is optimistic. Its AI platform is effective. “So far, our results have been extremely promising,” he said.

In broad terms, the popularity of the development and growing number of artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT has sparked the senses by generating consistent responses to questions or prompts from the user’s computer by using models that process gigabytes of data, scan billions of words, and learn adaptively over time.

“AI is growing and affects the global economy and all sectors of almost every industry,” Kevin Dennean, technology sector equity analyst at UBS, told the Union Tribune in 2024.

However, the International Energy Agency estimates that AI-based internet searches use 10 times the amount of electricity as traditional Google searches. It led to concerns that it would strain the electrical grid from the AI and the data centers that supply it, leading to higher electricity bills.

However, the Caiso-Oati Pilot Project offers a potential example of increased grid efficiency that allows for lids to electrical needs despite its power-hungry nature.

“We’ve talked a lot about what the grid can do with AI, but not so much about what AI can do with the grid,” Charles Hua, executive director of Powerlines, which aims to lower utility bills while growing the economy, told MIT Technology Review.

“In general, there is a great opportunity for grid operators, regulators and other stakeholders in utility regulatory systems to effectively use AI and utilize it for a more resilient, modernized and enhanced grid.”

The California ISO serves 32 million consumers and covers approximately 26,000 circuit miles transmissions. CAISO also operates the Western Energy Imbalance Market, a wholesale energy trading market where utilities and other participants can buy and sell electricity in real time.

Oati may not be familiar to the average audience, but the company is a major player in the energy sector and boasts a market share of 95% in the bulk transmission segment.

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