From Neural Networks to the Intelligent Power Grid: What It Takes to Make Things Work
lWhat is an Intelligent Power Grid, and why do we need it?
lWhy do we need neural networks?
lHow can we make neural nets really work here, & in diagnostics/”prediction”/”control” in general?
Paul J. Werbos, pwerbos@nsf.gov
•“Government public domain”: These slides may be copied, posted, or distributed freely, so long as they are kept together, including this notice. But all views herein are personal, unofficial.
Good morning!
I am very happy to have a chance today to help you in the IES community move faster to meet some of the important challenges in front of us. In my view, the technologies we are working on here might well decide whether the human species manages to avoid extinction in the coming decades. This is not an exaggeration; I will explain a bit today – and I hope I will help.
   The electric power area – from motors and chips to global energy economics – is a highly crossdisciplinary area in itself. Major opportunities are being lost in the world today because of the gaps in communication just within this area. In power electronics, especially, we need to understand the real needs of the customers – the world energy system – in order to anticipate and meet their needs in a more proactive way. We need to do this, in order to get ahead of the curve and not always lag behind, playing catch-up with our competitors.
   But the neural network field is also a large cross-disciplinary area, and most of what you read in the general literature is not quite correct. There are new and powerful tools now available, and there are also some pitfalls that are not heavily advertized. They apply to all kinds of “prediction” and “control” tasks, including some we think of as pattern recognition, data mining, planning, scheduling, state estimation, sensor fusion, data compression, etc., etc.
   Today, I will try to give you an overview of how these two large areas come together. Because time is limited, I won’t be able to give you all the equations you need to implement everything I talk about – but I will tell you where to look for more detail and for a few of the working examples. Most of my slides will come from two sources:
www.ieeeusa.org/policy/energy_strategy.ppt and www.eas.asu.edu/~nsfadp.
I can send you a few additional papers by email upon request.
   The energy policy slides contain text explanations. You can see the text in powerpoint by clicking on “Notes” under “View,” or printing with the “notes” option in the print options window.