AI consortium launched to develop applications for the power sector
Image: EPRI
The Open Power AI Consortium has been launched by EPRI in collaboration with Nvidia to drive the development of open AI models for the power sector.
With this the global consortium is aimed to accelerate AI adoption to reduce operating costs while improving the energy customer experience, EPRI reports.
The focus of the consortium is centred on the development and maintenance of open source AI and Gen AI domain-specific models, datasets and libraries, optimised to address power sector-specific challenges.
It is planned to create a sandbox environment to develop and validate AI use cases in collaboration with startups, academia, national labs, utilities and technology companies.
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The consortium also proposes to support the implementation of AI models leveraging global resources and expertise and incorporating lessons learned to accelerate innovation and de-risk deployment.
“Over the next decade, AI has the great potential to revolutionise the power sector by delivering the capability to enhance grid reliability, optimise asset performance and enable more efficient energy management,” said EPRI president and CEO, Arshad Mansoor.
“With the Open Power AI Consortium, EPRI and its collaborators will lead this transformation, driving innovation toward a more resilient and affordable energy future.”
Guidance will be provided through an executive advisory group as well as the general membership including top executives from over 20 energy companies and technology organisations from across the globe.
The launch at Nvidia’s AI event also marked the first step in developing domain-specific GenAI models, with the first set being developed by EPRI, together with AI startup Articul8 and Nvidia.
These models, trained on massive libraries of proprietary energy and electrical engineering data from EPRI, will be made available as an Nvidia NIM microservice for early access, with more to come in the following months.
“As the industry faces increasing complexity – ranging from grid modernisation to decarbonisation and resilience – EPRI is bringing leaders together to form open, industry-specific LLMs and AI models that will be essential to accelerating innovation and efficiency,” said Marc Spieler, senior managing director of energy at Nvidia.
