Smart Grid: Communication-Enabled Intelligence for the Electric Power Grid

11

Machine Intelligence in the Grid

The utility model of computing – computing resources delivered over the network in much the same way that electricity or telephone service reaches our homes and offices today – makes more sense than ever.

— Scott McNealy

11.1 Introduction

You have now entered Part Three of the book, delving into the notion of intelligence in the smart grid. Communication is still the central focus; however, communication exists to support applications where the applications are promising to provide “intelligence.” We have already discussed communication with respect to classical control commonly used in the power grid. Now we need to consider what the evolution toward machine intelligence, particularly distributed forms of machine intelligence, will mean both for the power grid and for communication in particular. The appellation “smart” in the term smart grid, conjures up the notion of a power grid with “intelligence, ” in the form of artificial or machine intelligence. If that is indeed the goal, then power grid communication and networking must be designed to support such intelligence. Communication itself will benefit from advances in machine intelligence and learning as well. It is necessary to understand and anticipate machine-learning aspects likely to be implemented in the smart grid and the role that communications will be required to provide. This chapter explores techniques involving artificial intelligence and machine learning for the power grid ...