Attention all Esri Transmission GIS users - You don't have to wait until Esri's Users Conference Transmission Special Interest Group (SIG) to get together with your peers to discuss all things electric transmission-related (or even Bulk power-related) discussion. Esri is hosting its first Transmission Meet Up on Wednesday, March 27th, at 1:00 PM PDT. The meet-up will last an hour on a Zoom call. We are building the agenda now. Don't hesitate to post questions or subjects to be addressed. More information will be forthcoming.  ... View more

  Please save the date for the 2024 Midwest Generation & Transmission Utility GIS Users Group scheduled for April 25-26 at Basin Electric’s Headquarters in Bismarck, ND. This is a user led meeting with many opportunities to present and collaborate with others in the industry. For more information or to get signed up for future emails, please visit the meeting site. Invitations with further details, including times, social location, room blocks, and registration to follow. Please forward this email to others in your organization who may be interested in attending the meeting. If you have any questions about the meeting, contact Sarah Bitz at registration@bepc.com or 701-557-5617. We hope your schedule allows you to join us in April.   Basin Electric Power Cooperative 1717 E Interstate Avenue  |  Bismarck, ND 58503 registration@bepc.com  |  basinelectric.com <![if !vml]>   <![endif]>   ... View more

This is just a reminder that our first Transmission Virtual Meet Up is happening soon: March 27th at 1:00 PM Pacific Time. RSVP by email to bmeehan@esri.com. The meeting will be hosted on Zoom and will last an hour. This is a great opportunity to connect with others in the GIS Electric Transmission Community. Ask questions, make comments, or just listen in. We look forward to connecting. ... View more

Check out my blog on ways to expand the grid's capacity without necessarily building all new lines or struggling with new right-of-ways. https://energycentral.com/o/esri/5-ways-dispel-grid-panglossian-illusion ... View more

 Generative AI has created a different landscape and a different way to do something that investors are considering,. They need to look at it differently because what it did was democratize technology significantly. Everyone now has access to similar resources, these incredible resources. If you're using OpenAI APIs, everyone can grab these APIs and grab this amazing stuff. So the barrier from a technology perspective has been lowered significantly but gap between the available talent and required expertise is still wide enough to hamper the real traction in the application of GeoAI &  GenAI in the fields like  Oil & Gas, Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing and Healthcare. Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) combines innovations in spatial science, AI methods in machine learning, data mining, optimization, and high-performance computing to extract knowledge from spatial big data.  Combining NLP techniques with existing geographic methodologies and knowledge can enhance  productivity and relevance of many geospatial applications currently in use today.  The  current AI renaissance will create a general awareness and acceptance of technologies like Pattern Recognition,  ANN, Deep Learning and Big Data based analytics which was earlier limited to scientific and research organizations.  IT companies will learn that present model of talent development and trailing is not enough  to tackle the domains which require deep learning of subjects like mathematics and modeling too apart from the usual IT skills employed in the IT support and maintenance projects.   Very soon by 2025,  dust  of GenAI  Hype will settle down and make way for talent discovery to increase in productivity.   Thanks, Ajay S ... View more