Energy & Grid: AI Roadmap to 2040
Three horizons. Concrete pilots. KPIs that prove it works.
Now (0–12 months)
- Meter-level telemetry; normalize IDs and timestamps
- DER inventory (PV, storage, EVs); basic orchestration rules
- Outage and condition monitoring; fault heat maps
- Pilot: one microgrid or feeder twin with weekly decisions
Next (12–36 months)
- Dispatch-grade twins for priority circuits
- Automated peak shaving; VPP enrollment for fleets
- Dynamic tariffs; customer portals with real-time signals
- Protection studies automated per change set
2030–2040
- Self-healing feeder clusters with local authority
- City-scale coordination across power, water, transit
- Standardized interconnect; hours-to-approve for small DERs
- Energy as a service: resilience SLAs, verified by data
Architecture notes
- Event bus + time-series store; schema registry; lineage
- Device identity service; cryptographic signing for messages
- Twin service per circuit/site; policy engine; human-in-loop
- Secure control plane; zero-trust between OT and IT
KPIs
- SAIDI/SAIFI; outage minutes avoided; cold load time
- MW of DER orchestrated; % automated decisions
- $/kWh avoided (peak); interconnect lead time
- Incident MTTR; cyber events detected/responded
First pilots
- Hospital microgrid: storage dispatch + outage ride-through
- Logistics fleet V2X: depot peak shaving + tariff response
- Campus twin: chilled water + power optimization loop
Risks & guardrails
- Regulatory friction → early engagement; narrow pilots
- Cyber risk → segmented networks; signed commands; drills
- Data quality → strict contracts; device certification