Generative AI Applications for Power Systems

A special issue of AI (ISSN 2673-2688). This special issue belongs to the section "AI in Autonomous Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 1298

Editors


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Guest Editor
Electrical Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, CITCEA-UPC, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: renewable energy; grid integration; wind power; solar power; HVDC; HVAC; microgrids; data-driven solutions for power systems; quantum computing for power systems
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Guest Editor
Electrical Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, CITCEA-UPC, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: AI for power systems; federated learning in smart grids; quantum computing applications in power systems; energy markets and flexibility; energy management systems and energy communities; peer-to-peer trading

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The digital transformation of modern power systems has led to the acquisition of vast amounts of data driven by the widespread deployment of smart metering and sensing technologies. This explosion of data has enabled advanced analytics using AI techniques to enhance the observability, operation, and planning of electrical grids, especially with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources. Generative AI further leverages these developments by enabling a range of applications. These include the creation of realistic synthetic scenarios and data augmentation through Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs); probabilistic load and generation forecasting via Variational Autoencoders (VAEs); state estimation and reconstruction of missing data using input masking pretraining; simulation of rare or extreme events not captured in historical records through normalizing flows; and cross-domain situational awareness facilitated by multi-modal transformers.

In addition to these capabilities, generative AI is increasingly being used as an intelligent advisor, capable of synthesizing diverse data streams to provide contextual, real-time assessments of grid conditions. By continuously analyzing historical and live data, generative models can identify emerging patterns, predict abnormal system behavior, and suggest proactive mitigation strategies. This advisory role enhances operator situational awareness, supports risk-informed decision-making, and enables more agile responses to volatility introduced by renewable sources and demand-side flexibility activation.

With these capabilities, AI and generative AI empower utilities to perform more accurate forecasting, optimize grid operations, enhance reliability, and support the integration of renewables. Generative AI is now transitioning from traditional data augmentation and scenario generation toward real-time grid control, operator support, and market optimization. Continued interdisciplinary collaboration between electrical engineering, software engineering, and data science is essential to harness the full potential of these methods for power systems.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Mònica Aragüés-Peñalba
Dr. Sara Barja-Martinez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • AI
  • generative AI
  • GANs
  • VAEs
  • transformers

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

40 pages, 3162 KB  
Review
Agentic and Generative AI for Autonomous Energy Systems: Reference Architecture, Open Challenges, and Research Agenda
by Nikolay Hinov
AI 2026, 7(5), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/ai7050176 - 20 May 2026
Viewed by 474
Abstract
Modern power systems are undergoing a structural transformation driven by the rapid integration of renewable energy sources, distributed energy resources, electrification, and increasing operational uncertainty. These developments expose the limitations of traditional centralized energy management and rule-based automation in highly distributed, data-intensive, and [...] Read more.
Modern power systems are undergoing a structural transformation driven by the rapid integration of renewable energy sources, distributed energy resources, electrification, and increasing operational uncertainty. These developments expose the limitations of traditional centralized energy management and rule-based automation in highly distributed, data-intensive, and dynamically coupled energy infrastructures. In response, recent advances in artificial intelligence offer new opportunities for improving prediction, coordination, and adaptive control. This paper develops a reference architecture for Autonomous Energy Systems based on the integration of generative AI, agentic AI, digital twins, and distributed cyber–physical energy infrastructures. Rather than treating forecasting, control, simulation, and market coordination as separate research tracks, the paper organizes them within a common architectural perspective. Generative AI is positioned as a source of scenario intelligence, synthetic data generation, and uncertainty-aware forecasting, while agentic AI is framed as a bounded decision layer for perception, reasoning, planning, and coordinated action under operational constraints. The paper further clarifies the distinction between agentic AI, conventional multi-agent systems, and multi-agent reinforcement learning in energy applications. Representative application domains are discussed, including self-healing power grids, autonomous energy markets, and digital twin training environments. Major open challenges are identified in relation to scalability, physical consistency, safety verification, sim-to-real transfer, cybersecurity, interoperability with legacy infrastructures, and governance. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda for the staged and safe development of increasingly autonomous energy systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Generative AI Applications for Power Systems)
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