Energy and utilities scenarios
Energy and utilities scenarios — grid operations, predictive maintenance, customer service, demand response, safety. Industry patterns, not customer case studies.
Five canonical scenarios where electric, gas, water, and pipeline utilities use Stratix evaluation to gate AI features.
1. Grid operations and dispatch support
Setup: AI assists grid operators — surfaces alarm correlations, suggests switching steps, drafts customer-impact messages, summarizes weather/contingency analysis.
Why it's hard:
Grid state is high-velocity; safety-critical
N-1 / N-1-1 contingency math defeats general LLMs
BES (Bulk Electric System) reliability standards (NERC CIP, NERC OPS) are unforgiving
Cascading failure dynamics → catastrophe risk
Stakes:
2003 Northeast blackout class scale possible
NERC penalties up to $1M per violation per day
FERC Order 880 (cyber) and 881 (transmission) overlay
Public-safety dependencies (medical, water pumping) raise stakes further
Stratix evaluation criteria:
Switching-step faithfulness
Output matches approved switching procedures
Hard rule + judge
Contingency-rule compliance
N-1 obligations preserved
Hard rule
Advisory-only
AI never auto-applies dispatch
Hard rule
Customer-impact message
Plain-language and faithful
Judge
Procedure-version match
Cited procedure version current
Rule
2. Predictive maintenance for grid assets
Setup: AI ingests SCADA, weather, asset history; predicts transformer / breaker / line-section failure risk; recommends inspections, replacements, vegetation work.
Why it's hard:
Wildfire-ignition risk in CA / Western states drives extreme stakes
Asset replacement decisions allocate capital across decades
PURPA / state-PUC depreciation rules constrain accounting
Underground vs. overhead trade-offs are politically charged
Stakes:
PG&E bankruptcy (~$30B) was wildfire-ignition driven
State PUC and CPUC AI / wildfire-risk rules are active
Negligent failure to maintain has triggered criminal exposure in CA
Stratix evaluation criteria:
Risk-calibration scorer — Predicted vs. actual failure rate
Wildfire-zone rule — Hard rule: high-fire-threat district items get priority routing
Asset-criticality rule — Critical assets always escalate to human review
Vegetation-rule compliance — Hard rule per state vegetation management standard
3. Customer service and billing
Setup: Customer chatbot for billing questions, outage reporting, energy efficiency, plan options.
Why it's hard:
LIHEAP / state low-income protections — wrong shutoff guidance can cause real harm
Senior / medical-baseline protections require accurate handling
Multi-language requirements; LEP customer regulations
Outage-status accuracy critical for vulnerable populations
Stakes:
Wrongful disconnection of medical-baseline customers has caused deaths
State PUCs and AGs aggressive on shutoff practices
Class actions on bill estimates / TOU misapplication common
Stratix evaluation criteria:
Medical-baseline rule — Hard rule: medical-baseline customers routed to human for shutoff topics
Low-income-program rule — LIHEAP / CARE / state-program eligibility surfaced when applicable
Outage-data freshness — Cited data within threshold
Multilingual parity — Per-language judge runs
Tariff citation — Bill explanations cite the applicable tariff
4. Demand response and DERMS
Setup: AI manages distributed energy resources — surfaces dispatch options, drafts participant communications, analyzes settlement.
Why it's hard:
ISO/RTO market rules (PJM, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO, ISO-NE, NYISO, SPP) all differ
FERC Order 2222 expanded DER market participation
Settlement-quality metering data must support audit
Cybersecurity exposure for grid-edge devices
Stakes:
ISO/RTO settlement disputes costly to litigate
FERC enforcement on market-manipulation rules
Cyber exposure under NERC CIP standards
Stratix evaluation criteria:
ISO-rule compliance rule — Hard rule: outputs match the applicable ISO/RTO market rules
Settlement-data freshness — Cited meter data current
Participant-communication faithfulness — Plain-language judge against actual dispatch
Cyber-control gate — Hard rule: AI cannot bypass NERC CIP controls
5. Field-safety and workforce assistance
Setup: Field crews ask about energized work, switching procedures, gas-leak protocols, confined-space requirements.
Why it's hard:
OSHA 1910.269 (electric power generation/transmission/distribution) is unforgiving
DOT pipeline safety regulations (49 CFR 192/195) for gas
Mistakes cause fatalities
Stakes:
Worker fatalities in line work / gas work are routine industry events
OSHA citations + criminal exposure for willful violations
DOT PHMSA enforcement on pipelines
Family/community trauma is incalculable
Stratix evaluation criteria:
Energized-work rule — Hard rule: outputs cite applicable LOTO and PPE requirements
Pipeline-procedure rule — Hard rule: gas / pipeline procedures cite 49 CFR section
Out-of-scope refusal — Hard rule
Manual-version match — Hard rule
Safety-disclaimer rule — Standard disclaimer present
See also
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