New U.S. project to use artificial intelligence to minimize electric grid failures
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — A new project led by SLAC, or Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, will combine artificial intelligence (AI) with massive amounts of data and industry experience to identify places where the electric grid is vulnerable to disruption.
The project is the first to employ AI to help the grid manage power fluctuations, resist damage and bounce back faster from storms, solar eclipses, cyberattacks and other disruptions.
Its eventual goal, according to a news release from Stanford University, is an autonomous grid that absorbs routine power fluctuations from clean energy sources like solar and wind and quickly responds to disruptive events with minimal intervention from humans.
Called GRIP, for Grid Resilience and Intelligence Project, the project builds on other efforts to collect massive amounts of data and use it to fine-tune grid operations, including SLAC’s VADER project. It was awarded up to 6 million U.S. dollars over three years from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a DOE national laboratory operated by Stanford University.
The project will use both machine learning, where computers ingest large amounts of data and teach themselves how a system behaves, and AI, which uses the knowledge the machines have acquired to solve problems.
