How might AI accelerate design processes when developing new power infrastructure?
Our recent Infrastructure Delivery Forum roundtable explored the role AI is having – or could have – in speeding up decision-making when it comes to new transmission and distribution networks.
Pressure is mounting to deliver infrastructure rapidly for Clean Power 2030. “There are loads of departments we need to engage with,” explains a digital transformation manager at a transmission operator. “They range from Ofgem to the Forestry Commission. It can take years or even decades to get approval. What we are trying to do is use AI with existing datasets, engaging with working groups and departments and bringing them together to aid decision-making. All the TOs are delivering a massive amount of transmission projects. We can’t do that using existing ways of working.”
And while there’s political will to help networks deliver, any tool that can legitimise the choices they are making about assets is also welcome – and that’s where AI comes in.
Our most recent Infrastructure Delivery Forum roundtable, supported by Utility Week and Autodesk, explored the potential role of artificial intelligence in developing and deploying infrastructure while engaging with stakeholders from across the spectrum, including not just TOs and networks but environmental bodies. That’s because as infrastructure is swiftly developed, community opposition and concerns about environmental impact have also come to the fore.
Here’s what we learnt at the event.
