Southwest Power Pool Partners with Hitachi on AI Solution

Hitachi, Ltd. and Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) report a strategic partnership to produce an integrated AI-based solution that accelerates generator interconnection (GI) by reducing study analysis times by 80% while also informing faster decision-making by GI customers. This will  improve SPP’s ability to facilitate the addition of its 14-state region’s generating capacity, according to Hitachi.

U.S. energy demands are rising by 2% to 3% annually, driven by data center growth, expanding manufacturing, and electrification. Data centers alone are projected to consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028, versus 4.4% in 2023. Such trends drive a supply and demand gap as generating capacity margins in the SPP footprint could decline from 24% in 2020 to just 5% in 2029 unless intervention occurs.

That intervention starts with end-to-end technical innovation, first at the point of generator interconnection. Currently, the U.S. generates 1.28 terawatts of power. The partnership draws on multiple Hitachi competencies: Method’s design services; GlobalLogic’s software engineering services; Hitachi Energy’s energy portfolio management asset modeling solutions; Hitachi R&D’s AI-based energy grid algorithm; and Hitachi Vantara’s integrated storage and compute platform Hitachi iQ, built on NVIDIA accelerated computing, networking, and AI software.

As the regional transmission organization (RTO) framing the project, SPP will guide the integration of these technical solutions and services. As a coordinator prioritizing operational and customer experience improvements, SPP’s input will also ensure the project outcomes align with requirements and regulations.

“Our nation’s demand for electricity has risen sharply in recent years following a long period of slow growth. Our industry has struggled to keep up with this sudden and significant shift,” says SPP President and CEO Lanny Nickell. “There are a lot of would-be power producers out there waiting to connect to the grid, but yesterday’s systems and technology haven’t been sufficient to enable us to bring incremental capacity online fast enough. It’s time to fix that, and SPP is proud to work with Hitachi and NVIDIA, two AI industry leaders who have the means to help realize a vision of a better energy future for our nation.”

The integrated solution is an industrial AI system differentiated by its advanced proprietary AI algorithms and high performance enabled by Hitachi iQ’s enterprise AI solution stack which sit at its core. Dynamic AI-driven technologies will be applied to various study areas, such as: 

• Process automation
• Predictive analysis
• Communication systems integration

The partnership with Hitachi and NVIDIA runs parallel to other improvements underway at SPP, including a reimagining of its transmission planning processes to align  with current and future industry needs. Together, these technological and process innovations are expected to set high-water marks in the electricity industry for generator interconnection, mid- and long-term planning, long-term forecast accuracy, analysis and deployment of additional grid-enhancing technologies.

“This initiative is about reimagining the electricity production and distribution process through the lens of modern AI technology,” says Frank Antonysamy, chief growth officer, Hitachi Digital. “Real-time data access is needed to create truly realistic scenarios caused by new generator introductions. The AI solution we’re all developing will provide that data, among other advantages. SPP can then make significantly quicker, better-informed decisions that will increase overall ROI while better serving the nation’s population with accessible power.”

“Interconnection process acceleration is critical to meet the unprecedented demand on our grid,” says Marc Spieler, senior managing director of the Global Energy Industry at NVIDIA. “Using advanced NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI, Hitachi and SPP are helping speed interconnection studies to bring essential infrastructure online faster.”

The project’s phase one milestones are expected to be completed by winter 2025/26. They include initial systems acceleration, data management processes optimization, and the introduction of AI-augmented simulation modeling among other goals.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.