Southern California Edison teams up with NVIDIA on Intelligent Grid Collaboration

Southern California Edison (SCE) and software company NVIDIA Corp. are jointly addressing electrical grid planning and management challenges via their newly launched Intelligent Grid Collaboration.

Together, the companies are incorporating digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) into data management, planning, operations, and customer engagement that’s designed to accelerate affordable decarbonization and electrification.

“SCE and NVIDIA have started applying their expertise to develop AI-based solutions for issues such as enhancing the interconnection of customer loads, advancing asset and vegetation inspections and maintenance, and improving incident management before, during, and after major power disruptions,” SCE spokesperson Diane Castro told Daily Energy Insider.

“These solutions will be designed to support SCE’s system planners, engineers, and grid operators in managing an increasingly complex grid while helping improve safety, reliability, and customer experience,” Castro wrote in an email Tuesday.

The collaboration comes at a crucial time, according to SCE, the largest subsidiary of Edison International and the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California, serving approximately 15 million people.

Edison International’s recent paper, “ Reaching Net Zero ,” released last month, states that there’s an urgent need for multi-sector collaboration, enhanced efficiencies, and significant investment in clean firm generation to meet California’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

In fact, electricity demand in SCE’s service area will grow 35 percent faster over the next decade than estimated just two years ago, according to the paper.

“Our customers are quickly adopting more products that depend on the electric grid,” said Shinjini Menon, SCE’s senior vice president of System Planning and Engineering. “They are counting on us to see that the grid is ready to meet their growing energy needs and be reliable, resilient, and affordable.”

To ensure that power is available 24/7, Edison International says that the grid must be intelligent, autonomous, and adaptive to effectively balance electricity demand and supply, and it needs the ability to detect and resolve issues with minimal customer impacts.

“While we face challenges, it’s clear that with investment in clean firm generation and advanced grid technology, we can get there reliably and affordably,” Edison International President and CEO Pedro Pizarro said when the paper was released Sept. 24 during Climate Week NYC.

Clean firm generation resources are foundational to meeting California’s climate targets reliably and affordably, according to “Reaching Net Zero,” and include next-generation geothermal, small modular reactors, clean hydrogen, and natural gas with carbon capture and storage.

As the electric sector nears a low-emissions future, each gigawatt of clean firm generation would reduce emissions by as much as seven to 11 gigawatts of solar and battery storage, states the paper.

And while pairing intermittent technologies like solar and wind power with battery storage remains an important part of the generation mix, feasibility challenges also remain when it comes to relying on each of these technologies alone, particularly when the pace and scale of the buildout required to meet forecasted demand and the challenges related to extreme weather are both considered, according to the paper.

So to move forward proactively while the industry works to resolve those challenges while continuing to provide reliable and affordable power, NVIDIA and SCE are developing the new AI-driven solutions to bolster the utility’s abilities to quickly analyze grid power flow simulations for transmission and distribution grid networks.

“We are entering a new era in the energy sector, with AI enabling utilities to transform their operations at all levels, from microsecond-level grid optimizations to macro-scale network planning and modernization,” said Marc Spieler, NVIDIA senior managing director for the energy industry.

“The convergence of NVIDIA technologies with SCE is paving the way for enhanced efficiency, reliability, and sustainability in power grid distribution, helping benefit millions of consumers and accelerating the global transition to smart, resilient energy systems,” Spieler added.

The SCE and NVIDIA Intelligent Grid Collaboration could serve as a blueprint for other electric utilities, according to Edison International, which expects pilot project demonstrations to happen within the year.

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