Self-driving vacuum cleaners no longer surprise anyone. However, an autonomous power grid is not yet a given. Automated operation was simulated as part of the international competition “L2RPN Challenge” (“Learn to Run a Power Network”). On the initiative of French transmission grid operator RTE, a self-learning agent took over the operation of a nationwide transmission grid.

The requirements included fluctuating inputs and loads, maintenance work, line failures, and malicious attacks. The solution of the team of the Competence Center for Cognitive Energy Systems took 5th place out of 50 international participants. The award-winning agent can prevent overloads of resources and power failures by changing the grid topology and the power input.