Electrifying AI: Electricity Pandemified
The pandemic continues, impacting all aspects of our day-to-day life, not the least of which is electric utility operations and services. We’ll take a look at the nexus of electric utilities and the pandemic, including utility billing impacts, the role of solar energy, and the grid’s response. Learn more at sas.com/utilities and check out additional episodes of the Electrifying AI podcast series at sas.transistor.fm.
In this, our second episode we're going to cover the Covid-19 pandemic and its affect upon the power industry.
Clearly, the Covid-19 pandemic has involved personal tragedy for some people, and significant economic and lifestyle impacts for all. In terms of the Power Industry, effects have included:
- Effect on individuals
- Job losses mounting / furlough People not paying bills - rents ...etc.
- Banks, Insurance and power companies allowing customers to defer payments
- Effect on Power Companies
- How to fund/support large-scale, expensive infrastructures?
- Will prices have to rise / write-off bad debts?
- Power companies will be forced to look at operational efficiencies: Cash flow forecasting
- Fraud identification - corporations & companies; supply-chain for utilities Procurement Integrity - Revenue Assurance?
- Changing patterns of:
- Electricity Generation Electricity Consumption…Introducing the Duck Curve! The Duck Curve (generation)
- More and more solar installations - middle of day is peak generating for solar When the sun goes down, where's the power gone?
- Generator's Response Base load may not be enough?
- Huge ramp up required from traditional generators. Demand ≠consumption - because people can generate their own power
- Conventional generation cannot switch on & off Not agile enough: Also - oil/coal are high polluters Many are being retired - to help countries achieve clean-energy goals
- New Paradigm for Generators Reduced need for conventionally generated power? Renewables increasingly in the mix alongside regular capacity but need to plug gaps in energy provision quickly?
- Demand-forecasting
- Accurate weather forecasting - affects solar & wind effectiveness
- Impacts of - storms/hurricanes/fires SAS concepts of analytics, forecasting & constraint-based optimization
In our next episode, Change is in the air! We’ll discuss how climate change is no longer a millennial, Gen Z, save the world topic or some poster with a polar bear. It has moved up the agenda and is now getting significant backing from the largest private equity funders, to the tech industry, and even major oil and gas players. We will explore what the future holds for green and uncover how we can turn a song into a modern-day miracle.
Here is a listing of links to references for the topics we covered in this episode:
Here is a listing of links to references for the topics we covered in this episode:
- Electric utility bills moratorium
- Duck curve going to the gym
- Renewables consumption increasing thanks to Pandemic - World Economic Forum
All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.
