NEW YORK, N.Y., Jan. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ThinkLabs AI, a company specializing in AI-driven grid solutions, today announced results in collaboration with Southern California Edison (SCE) using physics-informed AI digital twins to model and analyze electric distribution and sub-transmission networks. This technology enables AI-powered automation of grid energization requests, accelerating connections and enhancing reliability.
Southern California Edison is experiencing rapid load growth driven by electrification and increasing energy demands. Processing large volumes of grid energization requests quickly and accurately is essential to meeting customer needs while maintaining grid stability. To address these demands, SCE has launched Grid Digitalization initiatives aimed at enhancing grid analysis efficiency and scalability. AI-driven power flow analytics play a key role in enabling faster, data-driven decision-making across both grid planning and operations.
This collaboration between ThinkLabs and SCE demonstrates the use of physics-informed AI digital twins built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry to address SCE’s grid planning needs. In the first phase, ThinkLabs’ system learns from tens of thousands of potential power flow scenarios to automate accurate, robust, high-speed, and hyper-scalable time-series power flow analytics. By simulating both distribution and sub-transmission network models, it helps anticipate broader system impacts. AI-powered agents detect, and report on, potential congestion, constraint, and violation events while automatically recommending solutions such as load flexibility, battery storage, and topology optimization to keep the grid reliable in the midst of increasing energy demands.
The advanced AI technology developed by ThinkLabs demonstrated unprecedented high-performance grid simulations and automated workflows that were previously out of reach for a subsystem in SCE’s service area. Typically, dedicated engineers spend an average of six hours preparing data for each customer project, running power flow analysis, and generating reports. Due to the volume of energization requests and competing engineering responsibilities, analyses for energization requests require 30-35 days. The AI-powered approach demonstrates how machine learning models can train in minutes per circuit, process a full year of hourly power-flow data in under three minutes across more than 100 circuits, and produce bridging-solution recommendations with an engineering report in under 90 seconds. When scaled, this can enable continuous automated analyses of thousands of circuits, supporting a more dynamic, proactive approach to grid planning and ensuring greater reliability amid California’s growing energy demands.
“As California’s energy demands continue to increase, we need disruptive solutions to mitigate persistent challenges with current grid planning and operations,” said Shinjini Menon, Senior Vice President, System Planning & Engineering at Southern California Edison. “Innovative AI-driven power flow technology such as that developed by ThinkLabs, will be a key enabler for our grid digitalization efforts, supporting more efficient planning and operations for the feasibility, timeliness and affordability of the future grid.”
“Though AI is challenging rapid growth in electricity demand for data centers, it is also providing game changing tools to enable a far more secure, reliable, and affordable grid that responds quickly to customer requests,” said Josh Wong, founder and CEO of ThinkLabs. “In five years, we see most traditional utility planning and operational processes will be powered by AI.”
“AI-powered grid modeling is no longer aspirational—it’s operational. Through our collaboration with ThinkLabs on Microsoft Azure, we’re helping advance innovation in grid planning and operations with scalable, cloud-based solutions that support energy resilience and transformation,” said Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President Energy and Resources Industry, Microsoft.
“AI and accelerated computing are revolutionizing the way utilities analyze and manage the grid,” said Marc Spieler, Senior Managing Director, Global Energy Industry at NVIDIA. “Leveraging NVIDIA HPC Platforms, ThinkLabs and SCE can process massive volumes of power flow data in record time, allowing for faster grid energization and more intelligent system planning. This collaboration highlights the power of AI-driven solutions in modernizing the energy system.”
###
About ThinkLabs AI, Inc.
ThinkLabs is an AI development company with a mission to empower critical infrastructure with trustworthy AI towards energy autonomy and sustainability. ThinkLabs AI agents understand the engineering world with specialized physics-informed AI digital twins driving automated analyses and solution generation. ThinkLabs was named 2025 top 100 AI companies globally and across all industries and sectors by CB Insights. For more information on ThinkLabs AI, Inc., visit thinklabs.ai.
Contact:
Kari Kylo
SOMA Public Relations
(604) 889-8057
[email protected]
- AI-Enabled Power Grid Illustration
- Interconnected power grid and digital systems