Pascal Van Hentenryck, Daniel D. Slate, Alexandre Parisot, Liang Min, and Patrick Panciatici explore the impact of AI in clean energy in the latest issue of the Energy Law Journal, Volume 45, No. 1.
The article, titled "Adoption of Artificial Intelligence by Electric Utilities," delves into the transformative potential of AI in the clean energy sector. The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by electric utilities represents a vast, yet largely untapped, potential for accelerating the clean energy transition. This journey, however, comes with complex challenges including trustworthiness, explainability, privacy, cybersecurity, and governance. The article aims to foster a comprehensive dialogue among regulators, policymakers, utilities, and other stakeholders to navigate these intricate issues and leverage AI’s transformative power responsibly.
Key highlights from the article include:
- Balancing Challenges and Benefits: Addressing the challenges of trustworthiness, explainability, privacy, cybersecurity, and governance while balancing AI’s benefits.
- Stakeholder Dialogue: Encouraging a shared understanding and approach among stakeholders to effectively utilize AI.
- Regulatory Coordination: Emphasizing the need for careful coordination of state and federal regulations, particularly as AI influences energy markets and national security.
- Data Sharing: Advocating for data sharing practices that prioritize privacy and cybersecurity.
- Open Benchmarks: Promoting ‘realistic open benchmarks’ to drive innovation without compromising confidentiality.
- Trustworthiness and Explainability: Ensuring AI systems are transparent, accountable, and reliable to inspire confidence and enable broad accessibility.
- Responsible Deployment: Highlighting the importance of careful deployment of AI, especially in critical, near real-time decision-making scenarios.
- Ethical Considerations: Discussing the ethical responsibilities associated with AI-driven decision-making.
As AI continues to advance rapidly, this article provides timely insights into its opportunities and challenges within the electric utility sector. The goal is to support the adoption of AI in the power system, thereby accelerating an equitable clean energy transition.
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