Can AI revolutionize grid operations?

Everyone loves to talk about the “broken grid.” But if you look inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, a different picture emerges: infrastructure that is remarkably reliable, built and run by engineers solving impossibly complex problems with often outdated tools.

In this episode, Shayle Kann sits down with Josh Wong, CEO and founder of ThinkLabs AI, a company building physics-informed AI for utility planning and operations. They break down how utility studies get built today, the data cleanup headaches, the silos between teams, and the “worst case” mentality that drives an overbuild of infrastructure. 

Shayle and Josh discuss:

Why utility planning is split into silos across transmission, distribution, and DER planning.

The gap between studies that identify grid problems and the work of actually solving them.

What “physics-informed AI” actually means.

The shift from AI that identifies problems to AI that actually solves them.

The disconnect between utility planning and real-time operations.

Should data center microgrids be treated as micro utilities?

Resources:

Latitude Media: GE spinout ThinkLabs has a new copilot offering for the grid

Latitude Media: Do microgrids make sense for data centers?