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New York City underground secrets

Can AI help to detect faults more accurately? Discover the project where ConEdison engineer joined forces with Schneider Electric’s AI experts in going underground with AI.

In this episode of the AI at Scale podcast, Gosia Gorska looks at the picture of New York from 1890 together with Alexander Chia, Engineer from Consolidated Edison, Inc. Commonly known as Con Edison or ConEd, the company operates one of the world’s largest energy delivery systems. Founded in 1823 as the New York Gas Light company, today it provides energy for the 10 million people who live in New York City and Westchester County.

What do we see on the picture? All cables providing electricity to New Yorkers were installed above ground, covering the sky with multiple black lines going in all directions. Many things changed since that time. Now most cables are underground, which makes the view nicer and keeps the installation protected from weather damage, but the work of energy providers has got more difficult when determining where power transmission faults are occurring. And we are talking about an area of over 700 km².

What’s at stake? The risk of not finding the fault and not repairing it on time, can put the low voltage grid in a very stressed state, and it can sustain damage that takes weeks or months to repair, says Alex.

Can AI help to find faults more accurately?

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