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China’s AI-driven power grid can recover from a blackout in 3 seconds

  • State company tested how artificial intelligence could minimise electricity disruptions
  • The Chinese power grid has used AI mainly for backbone networks and industrial users but now looks to support residential communities

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The control room in Urumqi, Xinjiang, where the use of artificial intelligence is tested in a local community power grid. Photo: State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Company
Stephen Chen

China’s state-owned power grid company launched the nation’s most powerful AI for electricity distribution on Tuesday, according to Science and Technology Daily.

Following a community blackout it usually takes six to 10 hours to fix the problem and resume power supply, the report said, but artificial intelligence cuts that down to three seconds.

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A month-long test run at Qitailu, a residential community with more than 200 families in Urumqi in Xinjiang region shows the system’s effectiveness, according to the report.

The Qitailu community power grid has more sensors than anywhere else in the country, and each sensor has its own “brain” that can decide the routes of power supply without human intervention.

When an equipment failure occurs in the low-voltage distribution network in the area, the edge computing terminals will “instantly start the self-healing function, including automatic fault location, fault isolation and power restoration,” said the report.

“Now the outage is almost nothing. The power comes as soon as it stops, not affecting life and work in any way,” the state-owned newspaper quoted an unnamed resident as saying.

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