Mar 20, 2025 - Energy & Climate

Tech and power giants launch new AI consortium

Ben Geman

Illustration of a human hand and a computer cursor hand engaged in a handshake — Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Chip maker Nvidia, tech players including Microsoft and big energy companies hope to better harness AI to improve power sector operations.

Why it matters: AI's energy thirst gets tons of headlines, but AI also has the potential to make grids more efficient, help integrate new tech, and lower costs.

The latest: The nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute on Thursday unveiled the Open Power AI Consortium.

The goal: bringing together companies, academic researchers and others to build and deploy new solutions tailored to the electricity industry.
Over two dozen companies are taking part in some way including AWS, Oracle, Duke Energy, Southern Company and many other big players.

The big picture: "AI has the great potential to revolutionize the power sector by delivering the capability to enhance grid reliability, optimize asset performance, and enable more efficient energy management," EPRI President and CEO Arshad Mansoor said in a statement.

What's next: The plan is to develop an AI model, datasets and more for the industry to use.

Another goal: creating a "sandbox environment" in which utilities, startups, academics, and national labs collaborate on the topic.

Add Axios on Google

Tech and power giants launch new AI consortium

What to read next