New research recently published by Wi-SUN Alliance shows that utilities and power companies in the United States have turned to advanced weather prediction technologies, integration of renewables, predictive maintenance analytics, and more in order to address the growing prevalence of extreme weather events.
Wi-SUN’s research surveyed senior professionals within the U.S. utilities and power sectors to explore the role of new tools used to improve resilience and outage recovery times as extreme weather and natural disasters become increasingly common. The Department of Energy has found that extreme weather conditions in the U.S. have doubled in the past 20 years, contributing to significant utility disruptions.
With these changes, technologies have been developed to improve weather forecasting, and the adoption of more distributed energy sources may also support grid resilience. According to the analysis, advanced weather prediction and integration of renewable energy were found to be the top initiatives adopted by utilities (41%), followed by grid modernization (39%), and disaster response and recovery plans (34%). Renewables are known contributors to the creation of a more distributed grid, or a spread-out grid system comprising a variety of smaller-scale energy sources.
Utilities have also increasingly adopted technologies that will help improve outage recovery times. Respondents were most commonly found to be adopting predictive maintenance analytics (40%) and smart grid technologies (39%) that can identify grid performance disparities before they become a larger problem. Respondents were also found to turn to enhanced communications (34%) and the use of drones and robots (31%) for asset inspection.
According to Wi-SUN, utilities have started to recognize that AI-based tools maintain growing potential to support grid infrastructure. Energy consumption forecasting, automated fault detection, and grid optimization were all cited as viable use cases for AI technologies.
As utilities adopt AI and smart utility solutions, they also reportedly aim to enhance cybersecurity, and 41% of respondents cited cybersecurity as their top choice for investment in the next five years.
“Enhancing cybersecurity across utility networks continues to be a key priority for future investment,” said Jeff Scheb, director of solutions and systems architecture at Landis+Gyr and a Wi-SUN Promoter member. “That security focus extends from the customer grid-edge to the Field Area Network, to the substation, and ultimately to the data center. An authentic layered approach to security is a must.”
