How AI-enabled microgrids can solve a macro problem

Source: Olivia Gagan · RACONTEUR · | May 18, 2021

AI is helping to make the ‘utopia’ of clean, cheap and locally generated energy a reality. As more schemes come online, their benefits are becoming clear

Source: Raconteur

Microgrids – small, decentralised power hubs that use local sources of energy – have long been touted as a solution to the problem of ageing national grids, which are becoming increasingly prone to cyber attacks, blackouts and inefficiencies where power is consumed far from where it is produced. 

Despite their potential, uptake has been patchy, so microgrids have yet to capture the public imagination. But AI technology is helping to turn them into viable hyper-local projects that can serve global carbon-reduction ambitions. 

Harbouring clean energy ambitions

Rotterdam is the location of Europe’s largest seaport. Since August 2020, it has also been home to what’s understood to be the world’s first high-frequency, decentralised energy market, where port users share and sell clean energy.

“When we first met to discuss the project, the Dutch government had just been taken to court by citizens for failing to meet its carbon emissions targets. It lost the case. The port is a state asset and it accounts for a third of the entire country’s emissions, so people were very interested in this initiative,” says James Rilett, global innovation director at S&P Global Platts, one of firms that developed the supporting AI system.