Here's a startling statistic that may make utility managers think twice before slow-rolling their digital transformation: According to Transmission and Distribution World, recent study by NASA and the U.S. Navy found that 82% of failures in electrical assets were random, while the remaining 18% were because the infrastructure was old and aging out. What does this mean? For starters, it shows that a timed, scheduled maintenance approach to infrastructure assets is not enough to insure a utility against catastrophic failures of its equipment. Instead, constant monitoring and reading of assets may do the trick that manual monthly/annually maintenance checks cannot.
We've heard a lot of talk about what artificial intelligence can do and what kind of concerns are legitimate. A scenario like this — where a utility stands to benefit from regular and constant automated analyses and diagnoses of existing infrastructure — might be where artificial intelligence would shine. Consider all the data an A.I. system could collect on various assets throughout a power system. Talking to GreenBiz Magazine, which dubbed the decade of the 2020s the "era of automation," Jess Melanson, COO of Utilidata said companies should not underinvest in data capture and "computational horsepower."
One utility in Colorado, Core Electric, is using artificial intelligence to keep its customers safe. The technology works with satellite imaging, scanning the whole of Core Electric's infrastructure to spot any potential risks or damage that could lead to a fire or electrical failure. The technology, according to Core Electric, helps the company see not only how close trees are to power lines but also how healthy those trees are and their susceptibility to falling or causing damage.
Artificial intelligence promises efficiency, but utilities will also need to be on the look out for the technology's inherent biases, which are being worked out by hackathons and bureaucracies across the world. Indeed, we are certainly in the era of automation. In what ways is your utility using artificial intelligence? Please comment below!