Extreme Weather Is Taxing Utilities More Often. Can A.I. Help?

 More than 4 million people were without power on Friday morning after the enormous ring of wind and rain known as Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and moved north.

It is the latest storm to show utility companies’ increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events that are becoming more common and more intense under climate change.

“There are a lot of different signs of climate-related weather risks to infrastructure,” said Catie Hausman, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. Those risks include hurricanes and flooding, wildfires, heat waves and increased tornado risks or cold snaps in regions less used to them.

Extreme weather has increasingly strained the grid, and it is the No. 1 cause of major power outages in the United States. In some areas of the country, the risk of hurricane-induced power outages could become 50 percent higher in the coming decades as such storms get stronger.

Source: PowerOutage.us  All times on the map are Eastern. Data is as of Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. Eastern.  Counties shown are those with at least 1 percent of customers without power. By The New York Times

Wind and rain are the dominant factors that can strain power grids, according to Andrea Staid, a researcher in energy systems and climate analysis at the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute. The institute’s models show that as more hurricanes affect the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, more power outages will occur if the grid does not change.

“Hurricanes are not just a coastal problem,” Dr. Staid said. “Our models show that these storms can travel pretty far inland with strong winds, so we need to make sure people and communities have the information and resources needed to prepare.”

Now, in an effort to better predict what storms are coming and how to transition out of a fossil-dependent grid, utilities are looking to a new generation of technologies driven by artificial intelligence.

Darkened streets after a power outage in the aftermath of Hurricane Francine in Houma, La., earlier this month.Credit...Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Dr. Hausman said that while she did not know if A.I. was the right way to harden the grid, modern data and computing were needed to understand the problems.

“Whether A.I. is giving us something new or a black box of mush is going to depend on the company and the tools they’re using,” Dr. Hausman said.

What is clear? Utilities need to spend a lot of money to update their power systems to deal with storms both present and future.

“We’re still thinking of the grid as we have for the past 100 years, and it’s increasingly obvious that needs to change,” said Mark Dyson, managing director of the carbon-free electricity program at the global research firm Rocky Mountain Institute.

“Extreme weather, aging infrastructure and new technology are coming together in a way that creates an opportunity to use better technology, including AI-driven software, to help us keep the lights on and keep the grid affordable,” Mr. Dyson said.

One of the newest players in the nascent industry is Rhizome, a company founded in 2022 that uses A.I.-driven technology to help electric utilities identify and plan for vulnerabilities that could cause power failures.

“Rhizome’s A.I. platform approach is to fundamentally understand the relationships between hurricane conditions and grid impacts,” Mishal Thadani, Rhizome’s co-founder, said. Their data points from thousands of hurricane-related asset failures and what caused them can show utilities their long-term risks from hurricanes, helping them figure out where to harden poles, move power lines underground or cut vegetation.

“Ultimately, we’re able to project how many future potential hurricane-related outages will be reduced per dollar of utility investment,” Mr. Thadani said.

Hurricanes and Wildfires Are Taxing Utilities. Can A.I. Help? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)