AI in power & utilities

As the deployment of wind and solar generation plus energy storage assets steadily continues, the carbon intensity of the Irish grid falls, yet it also faces ever-increasing challenges. Colm O’Neill and Rodney Doyle of our Energy practice explain below.

New generation and energy storage assets are located all around the country, often in remote areas and soon even offshore, requiring the grid to transport large volumes of energy to load centres around Dublin and other urban areas.

It is no secret that the Irish grid is already under large amount of stress. Major upgrades are required to facilitate more renewables on the Irish grid: The Irish Government’s 2030 Climate Action Plan goals require Ireland’s renewable capacity to more than triple to 22 GW by the end of the decade.

However, recent decades have repeatedly shown that building physical grid infrastructure upgrades in Ireland is a slow process, and in certain scenarios can even appear to be impossible. Consequently, Ireland should prioritise technological upgrades that optimise grid capacity and operations, including a range of emerging AI solutions.

Operator AI initiatives

The disruptive potential of AI forms a key part of the Innovation and Research strategy at EirGrid, Ireland’s Transmission System Operator (TSO). EirGrid is delivering several strategic innovation programmes to future-proof national grid operations across practically all of its key capabilities including forecasting, control, maintenance, information technology, markets, and development.

ESB Networks (ESBN), Ireland’s Distribution Systems Market Operator (DSMO), mirrors EirGrid’s innovative position. Data and digitalisation is a dominant theme across their innovation portfolio, where the potential for AI to improve operations is a key focus area with potential to delivery significant benefits.

EirGrid’s and ESBN’s embrace of intelligence, automation, and AI can unlock substantial operational improvements across a wide range of activities. Several pilot projects are already demonstrating the potential for reducing costs, increasing efficiencies, and driving progress towards the next generation of network operations:

Using AI for smart meter applications: ESBN is currently running an innovation project where innovative AI technology is used to assist with the audit of smart meter installations called Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Smart Metering Applications. Smart meter auditing is a crucial but traditionally resource-intensive process, particularly given the large volume of installations involved in the nationwide rollout of smart meters. With over 2.4 million smart-meter installations expected complete by the end of 2024, the AI tool will check more than 10 million images reducing expected costs by over 400% and ensuring efficient, high-quality operations.
Improving network resilience with AI: Providing efficient, secure, and reliable electricity network capacity to Irish households and businesses is the core responsibility of ESBN. With tens of thousands of kilometres of network lines in Ireland this is a costly and resource-intensive endeavour, which AI has the potential to revolutionise. Line inspections today, for instance, require significant amounts of manual labour and interruption of service to ensure workers’ safety. However, ESBN are now trialling new drone and AI systems as an alternative. These solutions eliminate the need for line outages, reduces costs, and improves safety for workers. Several AI applications for improving network resilience also exist. Currently, AI tools in trial in ESBN include assessing tower corrosion, analysing 110kV composite insulators, and drone technology for fault location and line patrolling, with even more solutions expected to be adapted in the future.
Leveraging AI to enhance data-driven decision-making: Efficient and accurate gathering, analysis, and utilisation of data is crucial to the operation and maintenance of electricity networks. As such, there are a wide range of opportunities for AI tools to support EirGrid to manage Ireland’s transmission network and its operational complexities. One of EirGrid’s first AI projects, the Real-time Contingency Analysis and Network Optimisation Control Centre Tools project, has already been completed. This project trialled AI-backed decision support tools to capitalise on network flexibility. In another project, Control Centre Tools Implementation, EirGrid is currently implementing AI-supported tools to increase levels of instantaneous of renewable generation thereby reducing the grids carbon intensity.

AI in utilities

Utility companies are also embracing AI and incorporating it into customer solutions: Through their innovative EnergiHub app, SSE Airtricity now offer customers the opportunity to connect devices such as solar panels, electric vehicles, and home batteries in one virtual power plant (VPP) and optimise usage using their EnergiHub AI.

Electric Ireland has adopted an AI platform to maximise the use of smart meter data with several other supply companies following in their footsteps. Bord Gáis Energy has implemented AI solutions to significantly improve their IT security and optimises end customer experiences.

In summary

Given the rapidly emerging AI capabilities, combined with fast increasing volume of data from distributed renewables and smart energy customers, system operators and utilities alike look set to continue adapting AI-tools in the years to come.

If you have any queries, please contact our Energy Team; we'd be delighted to hear from you.