The 2025 Grid of the Future (GOTF) Symposium brought together power system engineers, researchers, and industry leaders across the United States.
It was my first time attending and presenting at the GOTF symposium. The experience exceeded my expectations on both technical and professional fronts.
A Symposium Focused on the Future of the Grid
The symposium was uniquely positioned so that theory, application, and innovation intersected in the discussions. Several sessions were arranged to cover different aspects of the power systems field. As a result, presentation topics such as grid resiliency, digital substations, advanced protection and control, renewable energy integration, and the growing role of data analytics and artificial intelligence in power systems. All of these areas are paramount to advancing the grid of the future.
What stood out immediately was the strong emphasis on practical implementation. Rather than focusing solely on theoretical advancements, many presentations addressed real-world constraints utilities face today. Aging infrastructure, increasing inverter-based resources, cybersecurity risks, and the need for faster decision-making under uncertainty were some areas explored.
I was able to attend a couple of events because several sessions were arranged around the same time. I have shared some snapshots below for better perspective of events.
Machine Learning in Power Systems to Enhance Fault Detection
Machine learning in power systems continues to emerge as a critical application of artificial intelligence (AI) to address industry challenges. On November 11, 2025, I presented our collaborative work/research titled ‘Enhancing Transient Stability Analysis with Machine Learning: Fault Classification in the IEEE 9-Bus System.’ The goal of this research is to identify the best machine learning models for classifying faults across different electrical installation configurations.
In practical applications, we see electricity-generating sources such as steam turbines or solar photovoltaic power plants. Interestingly, substations interconnect these plants to the ‘giant’ power grid. The configurations differ depending on many factors. A typical factor that generally affects the configuration is reactive power support or effective voltage management.
Modified IEEE 9-Bus for Machine Learning in Power Systems
In our work, we performed simulations using the IEEE 9-bus system and modified the configurations to include utility-scale solar PV and switchable capacitor banks at load buses. The main power transformers (MPTs) are configured to account for scenarios in which an MPT may or may not have an on-load tap changer (OLTC).
A steady-state load flow and reactive power study is performed as the base case, identifying critical parameters at all buses. Various fault types are simulated, and a large dataset is used as input for machine learning training and testing.
The audience raised insightful questions and offered constructive feedback that will shape and inspire our next steps in this research area.
About 30 audience/attendees were present during the presentation.
Introducing our presentation on machine learning for fault classification
Curtis Freeman P.E., (Moderator) and Shaibu Ibrahim P.E.
Each session featured four (4) presentations, grouped by topic similarity as shown in our poster. You can find the presentation slides below for a quick read. Feel free to check it and let us know if you have any comments.
From left to right, Shaibu Ibrahim P.E., John McDonald P.E., and Sajith Wijesuriye, PhD
Marianna Vaiman (CEO of V&R Energy) and Shaibu Ibrahim, P.E.
It was terrific meeting John, Marianna, and Sajith in person and learning from their experiences. Their leadership in the power and energy sector is worth emulating.
Panel Discussion Session During 2025 Grid of the Future
Below are snapshots of a pre-panel discussion presentation. It was brief but meant to set the stage for a high-level expert discussion among industry leaders. They spoke about many key areas, including the evolving power grid over the years and the demand for an expert workforce to tackle the challenges ahead.
Time for Fun at the Downtown Aquarium
After day one (1) events, we visited the Downtown Aquarium for a beautiful tour. It was a pleasure seeing different creatures.
Time at the aquarium
Key Takeaways from the 2025 Grid of the Future Symposium
Grid Resilience Requires Speed and Adaptability
The panel discussions provided insights into the increasing uncertainty and complexity of the grid. Therefore, rapid disturbances require prompt decisions. As such, techniques that reduce detection and classification time, like ML-based approaches, can directly improve system stability margins.
Transitioning AI from Research to Practice
ML applications in load forecasting, fault detection, asset health monitoring, and stability assessment are moving closer to operational deployment. However, interpretability, validation, and trust remain critical. As such, more skilled personnel will be needed in the coming years, as reported by the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Employment 2025.
Data is Now a Core Power Grid Asset
The power grid is a continuous data mine. Hence, applications such as phasor measurement units (PMUs), digital relays, and SCADA systems are collecting vast amounts of data. One is therefore safe to say that the challenge is no longer data availability, but how intelligently and securely that data is used. From panel discussions to the Next Generation Network (NGN) and several papers presented, it was highlighted that data will play a crucial role in the grid of the future.
Collaboration is Essential
The symposium highlighted the importance of collaboration among academia, utilities, vendors, and system operators. No single group can solve the grid’s future challenges alone. Almost all the papers presented are by teams, and we essentially need each other’s efforts to succeed in building the grid of the future.
Event Poster for the 2025 Grid of the Future Symposium
Summary
Events like CIGRE GOTF offer many lessons from panel discussions, paper competitions, presentations, and tutorial sessions.
The power grid will forever be here; however, it will never be the same as it continues to evolve. Everyone’s effort will contribute to grid modernization for fostering infrastructure resiliency, reliability, security, and dependability.
The most interesting part for me is the interactions with leading industry experts. Listening to their stories and journey is nothing short of encouragement and motivation.
Find collaborators and work on something. It always starts somewhere, and you never know where the journey takes you. However, you just need to start and take it one step at a time.
Finally, a huge thanks to my collaborator, Polat Goktas, PhD, who has been instrumental and tremendously supportive since I met him in 2024.
