This September, Erode AI founder Cody Kupferschmidt headed to Phoenix for Clean Currents 2026, the National Hydropower Association’s annual waterpower conference and tradeshow. It was a great week of connecting with former colleagues and making some new friends.
On Wednesday, attendees were treated to an excellent keynote from Jim Pratt of the Salt River Project on the past, present, and future of their system.
Another highlight was a roundtable on Putting AI to Work in hydropower. One piece of feedback from independent power producers stood out: “water experts who are really good at AI” have driven better outcomes than “AI experts who are trying to learn water.”
Thursday morning also brought a lesson about the value of AI forecasting. An intense precipitation event rolled through that the conventional physics-based weather models like HRRR had not forecast, but that did show up in some of the AI ones.
Thank you to the National Hydropower Association for another great event. We’re already looking forward to next year!
Clean Currents