How utilities can prepare for extreme weather with data and AI

Extreme weather events can be disastrous for both people and the environment. However, flash floods, hurricanes, and winter storms also have serious impacts on public facilities. Because electricity is the backbone of modern life and business operations, power loss can have disastrous consequences that require more than just flashlights or battery-powered radios to be addressed. Today, utilities are innovating to address these challenges and risks by leveraging data and AI to prepare for what’s next.

U.S. power companies are struggling with cold, catastrophic events.

In 2023, 28 weather and climate disasters occurred in the United States, ranging from severe thunderstorms to wildfires, causing an estimated $92 billion in damage. However, over the past 12 years, there have been at least five incidents in the United States where unexpectedly cold weather has caused power outages and threatened the reliability of the power grid.

Winter Storm Uri 2021 wreaked havoc in Texas, knocking out power to more than 4.5 million people and causing $80 billion to $130 billion in economic losses. As temperatures plummeted, power plants relying on different fuel types began to fail. It became clear that the entire system was not prepared for these extreme freezing conditions and utilities began “load shedding,” resulting in city-wide power outages. And in December 2022, Winter Storm Elliott struck the eastern U.S. interconnection grid, causing an unexpected disruption to 90,500 megawatts (MW) of power generation.

Difficulty maintaining power even in adverse weather conditions

The root causes of financial damage, power outages, and grid reliability can be traced to the following key challenges currently plaguing U.S. utilities:

1. Inability to identify assets at risk: Many U.S. utilities operate on aging infrastructure (e.g. power lines) that is prone to failure when exposed to harsh weather conditions such as heavy rain, flooding, and high winds. Proactively identifying at-risk assets is a major challenge for utilities.
2. Ineffective Outage Forecasting: Many utilities struggle to accurately forecast outages, loads, and energy demand due to a lack of weather forecast parameters, inconsistent data, and inadequate technology. In particular, the total load forecast during Winter Storm Elliott was underestimated by 23,047 MW.
3. Delayed or inadequate response times: Due to lack of advanced technology and inability to accurately predict future events, utilities are unable to mobilize staff effectively, which results in delayed response times.
4. Failure to meet winter standards or perform inspections efficiently: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission guidelines require utilities to develop a winter weather preparedness plan, including an inspection and maintenance checklist for freeze protection measures for generating equipment. . If winterization standards are not followed and thoroughly inspected before a storm, equipment and pipes will freeze.
5. Ineffective Vegetation Management: Most power outages occur when vegetation comes in contact with transmission lines and poles, and vegetation management is one of the largest budget expenditures for utilities. Utilities spend up to $8 billion annually on overhead line and vegetation management.

In addition to these challenges, unplanned power plant losses and reduced natural gas production are also important factors.

Prepare for disaster with innovation and intelligence

Natural disasters are inevitable, but the power of data, AI, intelligent weather insights, IoT, geospatial technologies, and advanced asset management technologies can significantly improve disaster management and strengthen the grid.

The combination of IBM® Maximo® Application Suite (MAS) and IBM® Environmental Intelligence Suite provides powerful tools to help public agencies better prepare for extreme weather conditions.

1. Reliability-oriented maintenance:

Aging assets without the ability to proactively identify at-risk assets create a complex and risky environment for public facilities. IBM is addressing these challenges by combining Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), and Asset Performance Management (APM) capabilities into a single platform. The IBM Maximo Reliability Strategies application supports an end-to-end process for starting, completing and deploying RCM studies and tracking results. These advanced capabilities enable organizations to make data-driven maintenance decisions, focus on critical and at-risk assets, and strategically assign the exact level of maintenance needed to keep the organization functional. Utilities can also develop strategies for cold weather reliability standards tailored to individual assets.

Looking deeper, asset performance management (APM) with MAS helps organizations understand how and when assets fail and proactively identify at-risk assets so they can take immediate action. AI-powered tools such as IBM Maximo Monitor, IBM Maximo® Health, and IBM Maximo Predict enable utilities to optimize maintenance strategies, reduce maintenance costs, and extend the life of assets by proactively understanding asset health and associated risks. can. The platform’s capabilities can improve asset performance under extreme conditions, minimizing unplanned downtime.

2. Power outage prediction:

MAS, in conjunction with IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite Outage Prediction, enables utilities to use meteorological data and take action to predict and monitor location-specific outages with increased confidence. This approach improves demand response, enabling advanced asset modifications, staging, and rapid integration of backup power plants into the grid. For example, learn how IBM successfully implemented IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite Outage Prediction for Hydro One, resulting in a 33% improvement in power restoration during ice storms.

3. Field service management:

To overcome the challenges of delayed staff response and paper-based inspections, utilities can leverage the power of IBM Maximo Mobile and MAS. These products provide efficient asset management, intelligent scheduling, and dispatch capabilities to speed staff mobilization and improve emergency preparedness.

IBM Maximo Mobile can also streamline inspection and maintenance checklist processes. For example, mobile inspection can be integrated with IBM Maximo Visual Inspection, which uses AI to automatically detect visual inspection issues.

4. Vegetation management:

The IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite vegetation management platform combines satellite data and Geiger mode LiDAR with weather insights to provide AI-driven insights into vegetation growth, helping utilities make more informed decisions. For example, deciding where to trim trees before a storm can be prioritized based on importance.

As the severity of extreme weather and climate events continues to increase, utilities need tools to overcome widespread industry challenges and strengthen their ability to prepare for severe weather. IBM’s client resiliency solutions with data, AI, intelligence and more can be the effective choice to keep your grid operational today and resilient tomorrow.

Learn more about IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS)