Initiative to Improve Power Outage Predictions and Grid Resilience
“This novel initiative uses AI to unite data from North American energy companies, turning a massive amount of information into a survival guide for the grid. Learning from the entire continent’s history, our AI model doesn’t just watch the weather—it predicts damage before it happens, allowing us to keep the lights on and improve affordability,” said Jan Woodcock, industry liaison officer for WISER and the director of operations for the NYS Weather and Climate Analytics Center of Excellence.
Tens of millions of Americans are now facing higher utility bills after regulators approved dozens of rate hikes last year. Regulators green-lit 43 rate hikes across the country in 2025, totaling $11.6 billion in increases, according to an analysis by Power Lines. This is especially true in New York, where electricity bills have spiked 33 percent on average over the past decade, outpacing national growth.
Researchers involved with the new initiative say better outage forecasts could help utilities position crews more precisely, speed up restoration and lower operating costs that ultimately impact rates.
“We have spent more than a decade building and validating power outage prediction models through one-on-one collaborations with utilities,” said Diego Cerrai, interim director of the UConn Eversource Energy Center and principal investigator of the project. “The North American Forecasting Model enables us to move beyond individual utility partnerships and, for the first time, to develop a scalable platform with national reach, contributing to improving the energy security of North America.”
“Weather affects every aspect of the power grid, especially with more frequent and impactful severe events threatening the reliability of an aging transmission infrastructure,” said Jeff Freedman, research faculty at UAlbany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and project co-principal investigator. “A critical component of maintaining a resilient energy system is our ability to predict, with precision, where and when weather-related power outages will occur. More accurate outage predictions help utilities better position crews in the field, reducing their costs, limiting disruptions to the power grid, and keeping electricity affordable for residential and commercial customers.”
Safeguarding the Energy Industry
Last week, WISER hosted its third annual industry advisory board meeting at UAlbany. During the meeting, the WISER industry advisory board members announced $550,000 in support to launch the North American Forecasting Model, along with seven other new research projects that are related to improving the energy industry.
More than 30 project proposals were presented during the meeting, as well as results from the 10 projects funded last year. “WISER is delivering actionable insights to guide investments and strategies for resilient grid operations and prioritization methodologies, and tradeoff analyses to inform short- and long-term investments,” Anagnostou said.
Mike Nolan is an Associate Director of Communications at the University at Albany. The article was originally posted to the website of the University at Albany.
