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Transition-AI: Can the Grid Handle AI’s Power Demand?
Learn more about the transferable tax credit market’s rapid growth and how solar manufacturers are gearing up to take advantage, covered by Latitude Media.
Creative solutions for utilities and data center operators to manage the AI energy boom.
Data center energy use is spiking around the world. As AI workloads soar, the International Energy Agency says that demand could double in the next two years. Many utilities in the U.S. are scrambling to procure more power to meet growing load from new manufacturing plants, electrification, and data centers – often by proposing new gas plants.
This trend is worrying environmentalists and clean power advocates, who say AI could make decarbonization harder on an already-constrained grid. But many experts see it as an opportunity to get creative about expanding grid capacity and designing data centers – and that the benefits of AI in the power sector will far outweigh the increase in power demand.
So, are growing concerns over AI’s power demand justified? How are they contributing to America’s growing hunger for electricity? And what technologies and grid management techniques can address it?
In our upcoming Transition-AI event, Latitude Media Executive Editor Stephen Lacey is joined by three experts who offer a range of views on how to address the energy needs of hyperscale computing, driven by artificial intelligence.
- Brian Janous, co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Brian is the former VP of energy at Microsoft who saw how the rise of ChatGPT complicated clean energy procurement. He is now focused on unlocking new grid capacity for utilities without relying on fossil fuels.
- Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation. Michelle co-authored a new report on the many ways utilities can meet rising demand without building new gas plants.
- John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna. John is focused on building data centers for batch processing that utilize excess renewable energy.
Who should attend?
- Utilities / IPPs
- Energy developers
- Solution providers
- Data center operators
- Large energy buyers
- Policymakers / regulators
- Analysts / researchers
Event themes
- Forecasting AI power demand
- Impact of data center growth on utility IRPs
- Meeting cloud operators’ carbon-free targets
- Resource mix to power data centers
- Alternative solutions: grid-enhancing technologies
- Optimizing data center design and efficiency
- Data center siting aligned to grid capacity
- AI in service of managing power demand
- Interconnection bottlenecks and obstacles to development
Stephen Lacey is a veteran business journalist, editor, and audio producer. He's the executive editor and co-founder of Latitude Media, an integrated B2B news, research, and events company focused on the new frontiers of clean energy and climate technology.
Stephen has been covering the clean energy market for nearly two decades, previously working as an editor at Renewable Energy World, Climate Progress, and Greentech Media. He's also the host of "The Carbon Copy," a popular narrative-news show about the business trends shaping the energy transition.
Brian is a global energy and decarbonization leader with nearly 25 years of experience pioneering innovative approaches to marrying sustainability with business strategies. Brian is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Cloverleaf aims to solve the critical problem of expanding grid capacity to support the largest electric customer loads to spur economic growth and investment. Brian also serves as a Sr. Advisor with Green Strategies, advising early stage to Fortune 500 companies on energy and decarbonization strategies. Previously, Brian served as VP of Energy at Microsoft, supporting the development and execution of Microsoft’s global cloud and AI energy strategy. This included oversight of energy policy, procurement, renewable energy, distributed generation, and overall environmental impact. Prior to Microsoft Brian worked as a consultant at Brubaker & Associates, assisting Fortune 500 companies with energy procurement, policy, and sustainability matters.
Brian holds board positions with LineVision, a leader in dynamic line rating technology, VEIR, a pioneer in superconducting transmission technology, and the Institute for Energy Studies at Western Washington University. Brian has also previously served on the board of the American Wind Energy Association (now the American Clean Power Association). Brian holds an MBA from Webster University, a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Missouri.
John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Holdings, the world’s first utility-scale company building modular, batchable computing centers for intensive applications like Bitcoin mining, AI, and machine learning, powered by renewable energy. As a serial entrepreneur, John has successfully founded and scaled multiple industry-leading technology startups that have achieved market leadership and double-digit growth, including FirstBest, an insurance software company acquired by Guidewire, and The Theory Center, a software company acquired by BEA Systems. Before becoming an entrepreneur, John was the lead architect for Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. John holds B.S. and Master's of Engineering degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Michelle is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Electricity Program at Energy Innovation, working to accelerate the transition to a clean, affordable, and equitable electricity sector in the United States.
Prior to joining Energy Innovation, Michelle earned her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Stanford University, where she studied nanoparticles with applications in purifying chemicals for use in medicine and the environment. During graduate school, she also pursued an interest in energy policy and spent a summer working on electric vehicle policy at the California Energy Commission. After graduating, she transitioned full-time into policy as a Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow. As a fellow, she had the chance to work on energy and environment policy for Senator Ed Markey, focusing on a wide range of issues spanning environmental justice to electric vehicle charging.
Michelle holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. from Stanford University in materials science and engineering. She also completed her B.S. in physics at Boston College.
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Wednesday May 8, 2024
1:00PM - 2:00PM ET
Transition-AI is the leading B2B event series for energy professionals and artificial intelligence experts. The series began in 2023 with two in-person conferences. In 2024, Latitude Media expanded Transition-AI to include a virtual series for timely, critical discussions examining the intersection of AI and the energy sector. Hosted by Latitude Media’s Stephen Lacey, these one-hour, interactive conversations bring together top thinkers and business leaders at the forefront of energy and AI.
Transition -AI:
New York
Transition-AI is the leading B2B event for energy practitioners and artificial intelligence experts. The conference series brings together business leaders across the energy sector who are building AI teams, integrating AI into new products, and using AI to streamline operations.
Building off its inaugural Transition-AI: Boston event, Latitude Media is joining New York Tech Week, and reconvening experts from the energy, climatetech, and artificial intelligence sectors to discuss AI’s role in the energy transition. The New York event will explore current use-cases and deployments within electric utilities, the role AI can play in streamlining project development, its impact on DER integration, and emerging applications that will continue to shape and optimize our electricity system.
Speakers
Schedule
How can we optimize grids using neural networks and machine learning? Dr. Kyri Baker, an expert who focuses on integrating large amounts of distributed generation and demand-side resources into power systems, will walk us through a few modeling scenarios. Then we will break out into small groups to brainstorm possible uses for different kinds of artificial intelligence.
A discussion of Avangrid's data science journey, with a presentation and demo of Avangrid's geospatial data science platform for reliability and resiliency modeling.
Daniel Hynum, GE Digital
Puneeth Kalavase, Fluence
As project owners looking to maximize the value of batteries and renewables in retail and wholesale power markets, we’ll explore the different AI platforms being developed to make trading more precise.
Carlos Nouel, National Grid
Sponsored session: We’re entering a new era for smart meters, powered by AI. If the benefits of an interconnected, customer-centric grid can be fully realized, utilities need to marry intelligent, AI-enabled software with utility-grade hardware to better support real-time energy analytics and provide the required protections to securely and reliably enable real-time grid control. In this session, we’ll hear from Sense and National Grid about the recent Revelo® meter rollout in New York, digging into the challenges they collectively faced in meeting the state’s reliability and security standards, and the opportunities their intelligent meters unlock for the region. They’ll also talk about the value of embedding AI and distributed computing software into meters to improve efficiency, enhance reliability and security, and support demand response.
Katie McClain, Energize Capital
Chris Streeter, Convergent Energy and Power
From rooftop solar to utility-scale renewables, companies are leveraging AI and digital tools to design, finance, and build projects in increasingly sophisticated ways.
A multimedia exploration of how AI is shifting the world of business – and how lessons in other industries can be applied to energy. The presentation will feature expert voices who will set the big-picture context for AI.
An in-depth discussion with Hanna Grene on how Microsoft is thinking about the intersection of AI and power markets.
An exclusive look at findings from the ongoing research program between Latitude Media and Indigo Advisory Group on the opportunities and markets for AI solutions in the power sector.
Sonam Kala, Urbint
Astrid Atkinson, Camus Energy
There are already dozens of use cases for AI on the grid. This discussion will map out many of the real-world applications for utility operations, maintenance, safety, resilience, and grid modernization.
Paul McDonald, Oracle Energy and Water
Apoorv Bhargava, WeaveGrid
Carlos Nouel, National Grid
From demand response to electric vehicle charging to virtual power plants, AI can be a powerful tool for empowering the customer to save money, monetize distributed energy resources, and contribute to the health of the grid. This panel will dig into the customer-side impacts of automation.
About
Who Should Attend?
Transition-AI: New York is designed for the community of leaders and practitioners responsible for innovation, strategy, technology, security, and product development within the energy and utilities sectors. Titles will include:
- C-Level Executives
- Heads of Innovation
- VC/Investors
- VPs of Strategy
- VPs of Product Planning
- Energy and Utility R&D Specialists
- IT decision makers
Transition-AI is the leading B2B event for energy practitioners and artificial intelligence experts. The conference series brings together business leaders across the energy sector who are building AI teams, integrating AI into new products, and using AI to streamline operations.
Building off its inaugural Transition-AI: Boston event, Latitude Media is joining New York Tech Week and reconvening experts from the energy, climatetech, and artificial intelligence sectors to discuss AI’s role in the energy transition. The New York event will explore current use-cases and deployments within electric utilities, the role AI can play in streamlining project development, its impact on DER integration, and emerging applications that will continue to shape and optimize our electricity system.
One of the central pillars of our transition to a net-zero economy is "electrifying everything," from energy generation, to transportation, heating and cooling, heavy industry, even the cooktops in our homes. As this electrification is underway, it's becoming increasingly clear an advanced digital layer to climatetech is essential to add the necessary intelligence to these systems and the electric grid. This intelligence will more and more be the province of AI and the rapid innovations underway in machine learning and distributed intelligence systems.
Conference themes
- Deep-dive conversations with leading AI thinkers
- Real-world uses of AI for renewables development, resource forecasting, price forecasting, financial transactions, and grid optimization
- Workshops and interactive technical discussions
- Explorations on how organizations can integrate AI and build AI teams
Our Speakers
- Raiford Smith: Chief Utility Innovation Officer, AES
- Carlos Nouel: VP of Transformation Programs, National Grid
- Hanna Grene: Global Operations and GTM Leader for Energy at Microsoft
- Mark Waclawiak: Senior Manager, Operational Performance, Avangrid
- Astrid Atkinson: CEO and Co-Founder, Camus Energy
- Daniel Hynum: Senior Product Manager, GE Digital
- Mike Phillips: CEO, Sense
- Puneeth Kalavase: VP of Data Science and Engineering, Fluence
- Paul MacDonald: Senior Director, Opower Product and Strategy, Oracle Energy & Water
- Chris Streeter: Chief Information and Risk Officer, Convergent Energy and Power
- Katie McClain: Partner and COO, Energize Capital
- Dr. Lauren Kuntz: CEO and Co-Founder, Gaiascope, Inc.
- Dr. Kyri Baker: Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
- Sherry Huang: Group Product Marketing Manager, Aurora Solar
- Apoorv Bhargava: CEO and Co-Founder, WeaveGrid
- Jae Beom Bae: Director of Platform Operations, Leap
- David Groarke: Managing Director, Indigo Advisory Group
- Sonam Kala: Senior Director, Product - Risk Operations, Urbint
Who’s attended past events
- Top utilities
- Developers
- Consultants
- VCs/investors
- Technology providers
- Educational institutions
- Professional service providers
- Non-profits
Join us in shaping the AI-driven, net-zero energy future.
This event is a part of #TechWeek - a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to celebrate the growing NY ecosystem. Learn more here: https://www.tech-week.com/
Space is limited for this conference, so register now.
For inquiries about media passes, government discounts, or sponsorship opportunities, contact us at events@transition-ai.com
Sense is making the energy transition accessible to everyone. Sense’s embedded intelligence redefines how utilities and consumers interact with homes and the grid. By partnering with meter manufacturers, Sense delivers software driven by high-resolution data that’s vital for utilities to better engage with customers, detect devices, balance load, forecast demand and identify anomalies. Our consumer-facing app makes homes smarter, empowering home dwellers to make better use of their energy, lower electricity bills, and reduce their carbon footprint. Learn more at https://sense.com.
Utilidata is bringing distributed artificial intelligence (AI) to the edge of the grid to accelerate decarbonization and better serve people. Utilidata's smart grid chip, powered by NVIDIA, is an AI-driven, software-defined platform aimed to transform the way utilities operate at the edge of the grid.
The Venue
Thursday, October 19
8:00am - 6:00pm EDT
Convene events center, at 117 West 46th Street is located off of 46th Street, between 6th & 7th Avenue
Transition AI:
Boston
Schedule
ChatGPT is a transformative product for a wide variety of creative business use cases. In this hands-on session, we'll look at some practical ways of using ChatGPT for energy companies, and brainstorm new applications and possibilities with the group. Could large language models help your company? Let’s explore how. Session leader: Paul Baier
The surge of interest in artificial intelligence is spawning new companies and use cases across the energy sector, from grid management to resilience to cybersecurity. But it’s also raising questions for startups and large energy companies about the speed of adoption, ethics, equity, and control. In this fireside chat, we’ll hear from Pamela Isom, former director of the office of AI and technology at the Department of Energy, about the possible outcomes for autonomous technologies to shape decarbonization. Guest: Pamela Isom, CEO of IsAdvice & Consulting, and former director of the Artificial Intelligence and Technology office at DOE Moderator: Stephen Lacey
Technological progress is accelerating at the grid edge – can artificial intelligence supercharge it? Panelists from across the grid edge landscape will discuss the roles AI will play in optimizing distributed resources, tying together virtual power plants, and creating new capabilities that will result in operational efficiencies for utilities and DER providers.
How is the rise of AI influencing emerging companies? And how do we sort through the hype from real value creation? In this panel, we’ll hear from investors and startups about how they're approaching the market today, and where the openings for innovation and disruption exist. Will the market be dominated by a new crop of AI-first startups, or by climate-first startups that are figuring out how best to use AI?
There are numerous compelling applications for AI in the energy system, from resource optimization to resilience. Some of these applications are being deployed today, while others require continued research and development. In this opening session, we’ll hear from Climate Change AI’s Priya Donti on how investors, startups, corporates, and governments can evaluate the usefulness of AI. We will identify specific use cases, constraints, and tools for action in implementing various forms of automation.
Discover how AI is unlocking a series of transformative use cases across the electricity sector, from balancing grids and managing demand to optimizing operations. This session will explore the emerging solution landscape, market dynamics, and real-world applications that are driving the adoption of AI in the power sector.
AI is already having an impact on the operation of the grid, from forecasting to optimization to resilience. But there are more technological leaps to come. This panel features a deep discussion with utility executives and grid edge solutions providers on how artificial intelligence will speed up decarbonization, make the electricity system more resilient, transform utility business models, and shift the role of the customer. We will look at things happening today, and applications in the near future.
For years, Google has been using machine learning to optimize data center energy use, and to better match renewable energy supply with demand. As Google raises the stakes and sources 100% of its electricity from carbon-free resources on an hourly basis, it is building more sophisticated ML tools for the job. In this fireside chat, Stephen Lacey will chat with Savannah Goodman, data and software climate solutions lead at Google, about the digital layer that is making Google’s ambitions possible. Guest: Savannah Goodman, Data and Software Climate Solutions Lead at Google.