Revolutionizing the Grid
As a Director with Clarum Advisors, Molly Podolefsky leverages her experience in economics, decarbonization, corporate sustainability, corporate finance, and the power and utilities sector to help innovative, clean tech companies. Prior to Clarum, Molly spent a decade at Guidehouse working with utility clients managing EE and DSM EM&V portfolios, supporting regulatory compliance and conducting research focused on IoT, smart and connected devices, load flexibility and demand response. Dr. Podolefsky earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a focus on energy and environmental economics.
AI has people on edge for many reasons, from its potential use as a disinformation tool to its competition with human workers. At the same time, AI is placing a tremendous strain on the electric grid through the rapid expansion of hyperscale data centers.
By focusing only on the negatives, however, we risk missing an equally important story — the emerging narrative around AI’s potential to revolutionize grid operation, allowing us to safely and reliably get more out of systems and infrastructure already in place.
AI has the potential to revolutionize the functioning of the U.S. power system by improving the speed, scale, and efficiency of buying, selling, and moving electricity around the grid, thereby helping address the capacity, transmission, and decarbonization issues it has created. AI also has the potential to contribute solutions to energy system problems it did not cause, from anticipating power outages and preventing blackouts to identifying system faults and protecting against wildfires and cyber attacks.
Addressing Demand Shortages
Over the past decade, AI has shown tremendous potential for reducing demand by improving the way companies use energy and leveraging flexibility to create capacity. As early as 2016, Google pioneered the use of AI to intelligently cool its data centers, thereby reducing energy demand.