The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is expanding its digital footprint by linking with expert technology firms that specialize in artificial intelligence that will help advance NYPA’s strategic clean energy and climate action goals and benefit the utility industry. Twenty technology firms have been selected to receive up to US$10 million in contracts to develop and deploy new digital transformation solutions across NYPA’s enterprise to perform digital tasks that normally require human intelligence.
“NYPA is a first mover, embracing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, for the benefit of our customers and all New Yorkers,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO. “NYPA is well on its way to being an end-to-end digital utility. By using our asset data in the smartest ways, coupled with the expertise of our technology partners, we will be able to continue to focus our resources on leading the transition to a carbon-free, economically vibrant New York, powered by affordable, clean and reliable electricity.”
The list of technology firms, which is pending final negotiations of terms and conditions, will be used to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities that could be quickly deployed to optimize critical infrastructure assets and advance clean energy solutions for NYPA customers.
Selected firms are among 33 that participated in a competitive bidding process in the spring. Once finalized, they will join NYPA’s growing list of pre-qualified vendors that assist with the implementation of technology services across New York State. Developing artificial intelligence capabilities aligns with NYPA’s VISION2030 strategic plan that aims to optimize assets and operations and help customers stay ahead of the evolving energy landscape.
Over the past few years, NYPA has invested significantly in sensor deployment on transmission lines and other assets, communications infrastructure and three digital hubs: the Integrated Smart Operations Center, New York Energy Manager and the Advanced Grid Innovation Lab for Energy. The amount of data being processed has increased exponentially and AI/ML applications are necessary to improve service delivery, retain and attract customers, and gain additional operational insights and savings.
Solutions are being pursued in three distinct functional areas:
- Generation and Transmission Asset Management: AI and ML and data analytics on critical infrastructure improves performance, can reduce costs. and mitigate risks for each asset and leads to greater insights to drive collaboration and improved decision-making.
- Customer Relations: AI and ML will support NYPA’s efforts to strengthen its customer experience and acquire and engage customers as it guides them to use 100% clean energy.
- Advanced Grid Innovation Lab for Energy (AGILe): NYPA’s digital real-time grid simulation lab offers a wide range of research and development tools and has the potential to accelerate deployment of new equipment and technologies.
Potential projects include helping provide customers with predictive insights on their energy consumption and actions to make energy-related decisions; determining viability of solar/storage projects for customers; testing cyber threats and network vulnerabilities; exploring new ways to prioritize alarms and alerts that feed into NYPA’s control room; and evaluating health of transformers.
For more information about NYPA’s Digital Transformation, visit the Digitization web page on NYPA’s website.
