The Energy Industry Could Be Moving Towards Artificial Intelligence: What Does This Mean?

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and live at a rapid pace. In everything from entertainment to business, AI is being developed with the hope to create efficient solutions to today’s issues and the future. This can definitely be seen in the wide-ranging energy industry in the United States, which is seeing its entire operations change due to the technology.

According to Harvard University’s Science in the News publication, since 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made supporting the smart grid a national policy goal, including a fully automated power delivery network. This is connected to the efforts to crack down on carbon emissions and use more sophisticated, tech-driven ways to produce energy for the years ahead to create cheap and reliable energy. Here are just some of the ways AI is changing the way the energy industry works.

Downstream Applications

The use of AI-related technologies in oil and gas goes beyond just exploring and producing. Operators in the petrochemical refining sector are now relying more on predictive analytics to improve performance in their facilities and better maintain equipment. With AI-driven advances to algorithms, firms are analyzing data more accurately to forecast weather patterns and to allocate resources better.

This sector includes oil and gas, as well as propane. For propane dealers, the use of AI will help to produce their product more efficiently and cut down on costs, which can help with onboarding an insurance plan specifically designed for propane dealers.

AI For Energy Savings

AI is helping create better forecasts for electricity demand and generation. It’s also helping to predict fluctuations in production, which can cut down on costs and energy use. AI could also be used to manage electricity shortfalls by switching off power demand for limited periods of time across entire regions.

Also, AI is making its way into our homes as consumers. Think of smart home technology, such as smart thermostats like Nest from Alphabet. Using AI-powered home energy applications can dramatically decrease overall use and maximize the time at which it is used during the day. And think about our phones, now essentially made with the foundation of AI. Google’s Android system includes a function that studies your app use and ensures battery use is organized to focus on what we use most, and shut down apps we rarely use.

Cyber Security

While it is becoming more apparent that integrating sophisticated technology like AI into our daily lives and energy use is beneficial, it can also pose a risk of liability. The more connected our grids are, the more vulnerable they are to being infiltrated by bad actors who want to deploy cyber threats, essentially compromising power grid of entire regions.

While data privacy is a major concern for both individuals and businesses, as well as the government, AI is helping to keep information more safe. The technology is building data-sets from our behavior patterns. These patterns will help to empower electricity users and energy companies in the industry. AI is helping to personalize ways to cut down on costs altogether and maximize potential use with the resources available.

Plus, AI is helping to bring more refined methods to keeping data safe based on algorithms that can essentially predict and avoid cyber-attacks and the methods behind them.

About Tangram Insurance Services

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