AI Control Tower Reads Power Demand Five Minutes Ahead

AI can read how much electricity the nation will need five minutes from now. Because electricity is so difficult to store, this brief window of prediction is the starting point for a stable power supply. Kim Sung-jin, chairman of the Korea Power Exchange, is pushing to build Korea's 'AI control tower'—a system that forecasts demand and supply using AI and data.

Electricity is unlike ordinary goods. The amount consumed across the country and the amount generated must stay in balance at every moment. If that balance breaks and power runs short, the risk of blackouts grows; if more is generated than needed, costs mount. The Korea Power Exchange is the body that manages this vast balancing act. It forecasts nationwide power demand, draws up generation plans, and operates the power grid and the electricity market. Though largely out of public view, it is the control tower that keeps Korea's power system running.

Reading Clouds, Wind, and Even Data Centers

AI's role has grown with the rise of solar and wind power. In the past, large power plants—nuclear, coal, and gas—could simply adjust their output to match demand. Now, clouds dim solar generation and lulls in the wind cut wind power, meaning supply, not just demand, has become an object of forecasting.

With energy storage systems (ESS), electric vehicles, and distributed power sources multiplying, the grid has turned into a vast network linking countless suppliers and consumers in real time. The Korea Power Exchange must now weigh nuclear and gas generation, solar and wind, ESS, electric vehicles, distributed energy, and AI data centers—all at once. The power system has become too complex to manage on human experience and conventional statistics alone. That is why AI, which can forecast demand and supply accurately and support optimal decisions, is growing in value. AI-based demand forecasting is the first step toward building the AI control tower.