IERE Technology Foresight: In-depth
research on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

February 2019

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Executive summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently a widely-discussed topic; it is perceived as a disruptive family oftechnologies with potential impacts on several aspects of society including electric power companies.
Although AI has undergone several hype cycles, it is very likely that it is undergoing a breakthroughcurrently. Several drivers are pushing AI technologies into practical and value-adding applications
that can replace and improve traditional processes and methods. Such drivers include high volume ofavailable data, exploding computing power, faster data transfer rates, and declining data storage cost.
In fact, several well-established AI applications already exist as showcased by the AI use-cases of theIERE members presented in this report.
This report aims to provide an improved understanding of the capabilities of AI including a survey ofthe current AI tools, its limitations and associated challenges, and recommendations on how toharness this family of technology.
The findings and recommendations are presented under the following four topics:
1) Utility's Data Management is the core of any AI Strategy: Electric power companies arerequired to manage large volumes of data generated by the generation, transmission anddistribution of power, and retail businesses. AI requires big data for machine learning;
therefore, utilities need to strategically capitalize on the fact that they are equipped with thisvast resource for different existing and future utilizations. As a part of normal operations,power companies need to equip and prepare their workforce, update their technologyplatform(s), and proactively develop innovative applications. This may include capturingexpert knowledge of the power sector using AI techniques and retraining/reshaping theworkforce to support the changes. For instance, machine learning training should be
provided to in-house experts, and different AI tools should be tested to build new
application(s) and/or refine existing ones. Moreover, data with sufficient quality is offundamental importance to develop successful AI applications. In addition, big data
resources come with big responsibilities. Power companies must ensure that the source,utilization, and ownership of data not only comply with all regulations but also be alignedwith the expectations from society, especially in terms of ethical use of AI.
2) Impacts of AI on power systems and the society at large might be profound: With the rapid
deployment of Internet of Things (IoT), and ubiquitous and extremely fast connectivity, theadoption of the digital future by a utility will likely be unique to it. Additionally, the pace ofadoption will also be specific to each utility. AI may profoundly impact the society: AI isii

capable of changing customers’ behavior, decision making processes, interactions, and socialresponses; therefore, how AI would be adopted in a specific community and society iscurrently uncertain or unknown. Furthermore, with the lack of appropriate and up-to-date
regulations, and potential bias, misrepresentation, privacy, and ethical considerations of AI
applications, a wide range of research, analyses, and discussions are needed in the near
future.
3) Balanced partnerships or cooperation with tech giants may be a double-edged sword: AI
developments and expertise are most advanced within the tech giants such as Alibaba,Amazon, Apple, Baidu, Google, IBM, Itron, Microsoft, Tencent, Samsung, Siemens, SchneiderElectric, Oracle, and Xiaomi. Their common aims are to accumulate maximum possible data
in different sectors, develop new services based on this data, and continue improving theperformance and results of their AI tools or platforms. There are few AI experts and trained
personnel within the power sector currently; therefore, the experience and guidelines
needed to formulate balanced contractual and/or cooperation agreements with these tech
giants may be useful for IERE members. Through improved information exchange amongst
peers, power companies can better protect their expertise and interests while accelerating
the development of AI applications within their jurisdictions/domains in a fair andsustainable manner.
4) Strengthening the cooperation on AI among IERE members is required: There are few
domain and AI experts within the utilities currently to leverage the international expertiseand information exchange platform within the IERE community, more cooperative
projects/programs among IERE members are needed for developing the AI technology andapplications for dealing with eminent AI solution developers, and for gaining social
acceptance of its utilization.

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