Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Energy Sector

Regulatory Sandboxes for Artificial Intelligence: Techno-Legal Approaches for India, ISAIL-TR-002

sectors which are ripe for regulatory sandbox frameworks to be implemented for the promotion of innovation in artificial intelligence technologies. It is clarified at this stage that this work does not claim to cover all the emerging sectors but has aimed to establish a pattern by showing the most prominent emerging sectors in India where artificial intelligence adoption shows immediate and immense potential on the basis of current use cases.

Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Energy Sector

In order to reach the epitome of a smart power sector in the country, the use of artificial intelligence technologies have been recommended in the emerging markets, leading to clean, cheap, as well as reliable energy, all of which are essential to the development of the energy sector in the country. In this context, artificial intelligence softwares can be depended upon for the processes of automation of routine and structured tasks. Furthermore, since the access of energy is one of the most essential factors for the guaranteed development of the energy sector, a combination of innovative solutions and modern technologies like that of artificial intelligence systems may be recommended in this regard. The energy sector as of today faces a similar variety of challenges, all of which have one common factor- the lack of access to energy. This has led to inefficacy in sufficient power generation, mainly because of the poor transmission and distribution of infrastructure related to the energy sector.

In fact, according to the November 2019 report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), approximately 860 million people across the wide globe have limited access to electricity.33 Thus, not only is the need for proper access to energy critical to the energy sector in the country to ensure development, it is also a matter of human health and safety. Along with this, however, affordability of relevant infrastructure as well as the everdegrading climate and environmental issues are also to blame in this context. Particularly, India has been recognized in this

33 IEA, ‘Electricity Access Database’ (IEA, 2018) < https://www.iea.org/sdg/electricity/> accessed 24 February 2022.

[ 19 ]

sector for aiming to expand the production of renewable energy. As of the reported date in 2022, India has had a hand in installing a capacity of 75GW from a number of renewable energy sources. 34 However, despite such efforts, the expansion of renewable energy remains to be a challenge. Furthermore, in regards to this, it is imperative to understand the working of artificial intelligence in this sector, while also understanding its impact. Artificial intelligence solutions have the honest potential to reduce the waste of energy, lower the cost of energy, and also facilitate and accelerate the use of clean renewable energy sources in power grids throughout the globe.35 For example, in contrast to the above discussed theory, we can refer to the initiative of DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, who has been applying machine learning techniques to predict power output approximately 26 hours before its actual generation through neural networks trained on weather forecasts and wind turbine data.36

There are several use cases of artificial intelligence in the Indian energy sector. One of them include Tata Power which has been harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (machine learning) to detect pump failures which has led to an energy saving of approximately USD 300,000 for the company.37 The company Climate Connect provides services of price forecasting in the power exchange market and load forecast for energy distribution

34 Aman Y. Thakker, ‘By the Numbers: India’s Progress on its Renewable Energy Target’ (CSIS CogitAsia, 27 February 2019) <https://www.cogitasia.com/by-the-numbers-indias-progress-on-itsrenewable-energy-target/> accessed 24 February 2022. 35 Olivia Gagan, ‘Here's how AI fits into the future of energy’ (World Economic Forum, 25 May 2018) <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/how-ai-can-help-meetglobal-energy-demand> accessed 24 February 2022. 36 Sims Witherspoon, Will Fadrhonc, ‘Machine learning can boost the value of wind energy’ (Google Blog, 26 February 2019) <https://blog.google/technology/ai/machine-learning-can-boostvalue-wind-energy/> accessed 25 February 2022. 37 Sarah Hunt, ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Energy’ (Datamation, 25 October 2021) <https://www.datamation.com/artificialintelligence/artificial-intelligence-in-energy/> accessed 25 February 2022.