Key Highlights
-
The aging and largely analog power grid faces challenges in adopting AI due to its mission-critical nature, cybersecurity concerns, and complex infrastructure.
-
Hitachi Energy’s AI-readiness approach focuses on connecting physical assets to IT systems, enabling secure data exchange, and layering digital capabilities for smarter, more efficient grid operations.
-
By integrating operational and information technologies with sensors, connectivity, and cybersecurity, utilities can gradually build a more resilient, flexible, and data-driven power grid that supports AI-driven innovation.
Building the AI-ready grid
AI is sweeping through industries of all kinds, transforming them in both subtle and dramatic ways. However, one industry that has been somewhat resistant to AI's transformative powers is our electrical transmission and distribution system, more commonly known as the power grid. There are various reasons for this, but among the most critical is its age. Despite its mission-critical nature and complexity, much of the grid is composed of largely mechanical equipment designed and installed decades ago.
While certain core functions of the grid have shifted to digital IT platforms, much of the foundational infrastructure of the grid remains very 'analog' in nature. Why? As with most mission-critical infrastructure, adopting new technologies entails carefully balancing the benefits of new technology against the associated risks, particularly when one of those risks could be an outage that impacts millions of lives. Today's grid is a mix of tried-and-true technologies, with pockets of new capabilities (which are introduced very carefully).
Notwithstanding this limitation, the grid has been remarkably successful at achieving its core mission – delivering power to households and businesses, reliably, safely, and affordably. Historically, utilities have been somewhat reluctant to fully embrace the benefits offered by IT for various reasons such as cybersecurity threats, regulatory complexity, funding and ROI challenges, and an overall bias toward minimizing risk.
Still, the benefits AI has brought to other industries offer a compelling argument to grid operators that it's time to embrace the digital world more fully. AI has essentially positioned itself at the front of the pack. The question is 'where to start?'
Hitachi Energy, in cooperation with other companies within the Hitachi Group - many with long-established and deep expertise in the IT space - has developed a tech stack designed to address the AI-readiness gap many utilities face.
What is 'AI readiness'?
The power grid is one of the world's most complex machines. In the US alone, the grid is made up of hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines and millions of miles of distribution wires crossing vast territories, interconnecting cities, towns, and rural areas. It is served by tens of thousands of electrical substations, which manage energy flows, interconnect power stations, solar and wind farms, hydroelectric dams, and other energy generation sources. It also brings power to load centers like cities, factories, and data centers. Despite this elaborate set of interconnections, many key grid elements remain disconnected from the Internet or broader IT systems.
The foundation for an AI-ready grid begins with connecting physical assets to IT systems. Various digital capabilities can then be layered on top of these systems to help make grid elements' smart' and enable them to communicate (safely and securely) with one another and exchange data. Robust connectivity and network control are essential for seamless grid operations and data exchange.
The next step would be effective data management, crucial for deriving actionable intelligence from grid operations. This is accomplished by extracting data from different grid elements – in many cases separated into different silos - and then putting it to work through applications like advanced distribution management systems (ADMS), asset management and energy trading platforms, and optimization systems. Using this approach, utilities can optimize grid performance and improve overall efficiency. Ultimately, this creates business value by creating more resilient, flexible, and situationally aware systems.
This approach is captured in a graphic that illustrates Hitachi Energy’s vision of how utilities can leverage technology, digitalization, and AI to meet future challenges; this graphic highlights the integration of various technologies and solutions needed to modernize the power grid, introducing the connectivity, intelligence, and data management capabilities required for the AI Era:
At a high level, this graphic articulates an overall architecture that couples operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT), and ties together various physical and digital assets holistically.
It starts with the installed base of physical assets our customers have deployed in their networks, like transformers, high-voltage switchgear, and breakers – everything you'd find in a typical electrical substation. Often, these infrastructure assets do not support a connection to the utility's IT assets. They're essentially isolated and 'dumb' compared to more connected assets typical of other industries.
This limitation can be remedied by introducing sensors and connectivity software and linking them through private wireless or wired communication networks. They can then be connected with hardware platforms that support distribution automation or control systems to provide real-time monitoring and management capabilities. All of this is then coupled with a cybersecurity layer to protect these systems and associated information.
What this process provides is access to data, which can then fuel insights. This data can be securely stored and later analyzed and harnessed to create order from what has historically been chaos. That data can then be put to work, using applications like asset management (to monitor the health and performance of critical equipment), ADMS to optimize energy flows, energy trading to improve financial returns, and much more.
Ultimately, this creates clear business value through increased resilience and flexibility in the face of market shocks or literal disasters and greater situational awareness to improve decision-making.
This doesn't need to happen all at once. This is a journey; the grid doesn't need to be fully AI-enabled to start seeing benefits. There are improvements to be leveraged at every step on the path. As utilities adopt new technologies and solutions, it is essential that they remain agile and evidence-based in their approach. Hitachi Energy can help meet them where they are at in navigating this process, maintaining and strengthening the grid's reliability, resiliency, and sustainability, ultimately creating a smarter and more efficient power grid for the future.
Sponsored By:
