Rudy Shankar, Director of Energy Systems Engineering and Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure & Energy (I-CPIE) faculty member, is in Phoenix, Arizona this week for Utility Analytics Week 2019. The following are his thoughts from Day 1 of the conference. Stay tuned for more updates from Dr. Shankar throughout the week!
Another “rotten” day in the land of always-balmy temperatures, at the foothills of the Northern Preservation Hill area. This is the first day for registration and a cocktail reception planned for later in the day. I did remember how far the industry has come to look closely at machine learning and artificial intelligence More than thirty years ago, when PCs were neither as popular nor as powerful as today, “expert systems” that use IF-THEN logic based on human ways of making decisions were experimented for diagnostics. I was aware it was just that the technology was new and novel but there were strong fear of the unknown, job security issues that were equally strong in militating against new methods.
Today the scenarios are different. One of the reasons is the large-scale usage of distributed energy resources (DERs)—solar systems, wind energy, batteries—as integral parts of the grid assets to assure we have reliable and resilient supply. However, the old ways of managing the grid must give way to more dynamic means to manage the inherent intermittencies of solar and wind systems. Hence, the rise of AI and ML means.
The agenda on Monday and Tuesday has much focus on the digital transformation in the industry, the large amounts of data that are yet to be tapped to assure that we maintain the high reliability of the grid as in past years. There are keynote presentations from the local utility (APS) vice president of delivery, the convergence of “IT/OT” from Intel and the CEO of Bidgely a rising start up company in the Bay Area. Two items will surface, I believe. First is the customer—you and me—who have a large part to play in the choices for energy, what prices we pay and how we consume the product. Second is the challenge of climate change that will is already manifest as extreme weather over the past decade that make the delivery of the product more uncertain, and communication to the customer more urgent.
- Rudy Shankar, Director of Energy Systems Engineering and I-CPIE faculty member