Today's email from ERCOT is directly related: "ERCOT) today announced it has selected GE Vernova to participate in a Proof-of-Concept (POC) implementation of the ERCOT Distribution Awareness Platform (EDAP) as part of ERCOT’s Grid Research, Innovation, and Transformation (GRIT) efforts." Does this move VPP along better, having a policy now for DERMs???? Is this just going to be studied to death, or is something happening? And what about "non-competitive" Texas markets, like Austin Energy? How far behind are they (we?) ?
Artificial intelligence systems are inherently constrained by the boundaries of their training datasets, leading to knowledge retention gaps analogous to the tacit expertise lost when veteran Texas grid engineers retire without codifying critical operational procedures. During iterative model updates or fine-tuning, prior learned heuristics can be overwritten or attenuated — a phenomenon known in AI research as catastrophic forgetting — reminiscent of essential black-start protocols vanishing from revised operational manuals. Lacking situational awareness, AI systems are prone to context blindness, overlooking delicate equipment or interdependent network contingencies that experienced engineers navigate intuitively. Consequently, the imperfect interface between machine cognition and human expertise renders reliance on AI a high-risk endeavor, particularly for mission-critical infrastructure such as an electric power grid — underscoring that everyone involved must actively engage, adapt, and develop safeguards to ensure AI enhances rather than compromises operations. Wilton Smith
Today's email from ERCOT is directly related: "ERCOT) today announced it has selected GE Vernova to participate in a Proof-of-Concept (POC) implementation of the ERCOT Distribution Awareness Platform (EDAP) as part of ERCOT’s Grid Research, Innovation, and Transformation (GRIT) efforts." Does this move VPP along better, having a policy now for DERMs???? Is this just going to be studied to death, or is something happening? And what about "non-competitive" Texas markets, like Austin Energy? How far behind are they (we?) ?
When AI Machines Run the Grid
Artificial intelligence systems are inherently constrained by the boundaries of their training datasets, leading to knowledge retention gaps analogous to the tacit expertise lost when veteran Texas grid engineers retire without codifying critical operational procedures. During iterative model updates or fine-tuning, prior learned heuristics can be overwritten or attenuated — a phenomenon known in AI research as catastrophic forgetting — reminiscent of essential black-start protocols vanishing from revised operational manuals. Lacking situational awareness, AI systems are prone to context blindness, overlooking delicate equipment or interdependent network contingencies that experienced engineers navigate intuitively. Consequently, the imperfect interface between machine cognition and human expertise renders reliance on AI a high-risk endeavor, particularly for mission-critical infrastructure such as an electric power grid — underscoring that everyone involved must actively engage, adapt, and develop safeguards to ensure AI enhances rather than compromises operations. Wilton Smith