Energy infrastructure provider Itron is working with Nvidia to expand AI-powered distributed intelligence capabilities at the grid edge.

The US companies have demonstrated the integration of Itron’s distributed intelligence (DI) platform, including grid-edge intelligence applications, with the Nvidia Jetson platform. Jetson powers real-time data analysis from an Itron DI-enabled endpoint. This collaboration strengthens Itron’s AI-powered distributed intelligence.

The companies demonstrated how technology developed by Itron and its partners can harness the Jetson platform to process waveform data from Itron endpoints, using AI for local anomaly detection to identify systemic risks such as faults or wildfires. AI, deployed at the grid edge, enables faster, more precise fault location compared with traditional methods, while continuous learning reduces threats to people and property. This collaboration combines technology and industry expertise, enabling utilities to extract value from complex data sets and address major problems impacting their infrastructure and consumers.

Due to rapidly accelerating grid complexity, utilities must be able to process and analyse high-fidelity data closer to the source to support real-time decision-making. Itron’s grid-edge intelligence portfolio supports distributed intelligence across the distribution grid, enabling utilities to apply AI-assisted analytics at scale.

Jetson’s high-performance compute delivers real-time, low-latency processing of large quantities of data. When AI is applied to the high-frequency, real-time data Itron’s intelligent endpoints collect at the edge, detection and classification applications perform inference at the edge and pinpoint faults with greater speed and accuracy. These applications also learn – recognising conditions that signal risk – making it easier for infrastructure to predict and prevent incidents that threaten property or life.

“As grid topology becomes more complex and threats to resiliency, reliability, safety and affordability increase, utilities require greater visibility into conditions emerging closer to customers,”said Don Reeves, senior vice president at Washington-based Itron (www.itron.com). “Through our collaboration with Nvidia [www.nvidia.com], Itron is demonstrating AI at the grid edge, leveraging our DI platform, to help utilities better detect and classify conditions that may indicate faults, wildfire risk or other emerging threats, improving situational awareness and supporting faster, more informed decisions.”