Mary Cleary, Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Policy at Neara, joins Dr Francesco Leofante of Imperial College London on episode 40 of the Energy Futures Podcast, produced by Imperial’s Energy Futures Lab.
The question the episode sets out to answer: can AI help us build resilience into the energy grid, even in the face of unforeseen challenges?
What the episode covers
- Challenges in modelling AI for critical infrastructure
- Major applications for grid resilience
- Repairing models for policy and regulators
- New opportunities in AI
Chapters
| 00:00 | Introduction to the Energy Futures Podcast |
| 01:13 | Grid resilience applications |
| 01:38 | Meet the host and topic: Francesco Leofante on AI for critical infrastructure |
| 02:27 | Meet the guest: Mary Cleary from Neara |
| 03:41 | What is a physics-enabled digital twin? |
| 04:05 | Role of AI in classifying infrastructure data |
| 08:11 | Counterfactual reasoning and scenario simulation |
| 09:25 | Challenges of data collection in the energy sector |
| 12:17 | Cost of training AI models and opportunity costs |
| 14:44 | AI safety and explainability in critical systems |
| 16:22 | Regulatory challenges and transparency |
| 22:56 | Privacy and cybersecurity considerations |
| 24:58 | Policy recommendations and the need for guidance |
| 29:04 | AI for extreme weather prediction and infrastructure stress testing |
| 43:00 | Closing remarks and reflections on AI’s role in energy |
Speakers
Dr Francesco Leofante, host, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London and part of the Centre for eXplainable AI.
Mary Cleary is Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Policy at Neara.
Produced by Annemarie van Basten.
