Researchers at a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory recently developed ChatGrid, an incredible technology that will be used to monitor the power grid using generative AI and impressive computer systems.
As it works now, grid operators must constantly monitor every bit of the power grid, from generators to substations to homes and businesses. If there's a disruption due to a storm or equipment or any number of reasons, operators need to make decisions as quickly as possible to get the power flowing again. That can be a process that slows down an operator's decision-making.
Shrirang Abhyankar, an optimization and grid modeling researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and former PNNL intern Sichen Jin developed the program in which a grid operator can ask a question about anything related to the grid and immediately get all the information they need.
"We're envisioning a new way to look at data through questions," Abhyankar said. "ChatGrid allows someone to query the data — in a literal sense — and get an instantaneous answer."
To simply say that ChatGrid will streamline that process is an understatement. It will run on supercomputers capable of a billion billion computations per second. That wasn't a typo. They're capable of a billion billion computations per second.
This would help get power back on to potentially millions of people in the case of a disruption, but it could also tell operators about generation capacity, voltage, and power flow from clean energy sources throughout the grid.
ChatGrid could presumably help bring online the multitude of clean energy projects that are part of the Biden administration's infrastructure bill.
ChatGrid is still in the testing phase, so there's no word yet on when this incredibly powerful tool will be in action.
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