Managing AI system risk within energy networks through digital trust

This position paper sets out digital trust as the foundation for managing AI system risk within energy networks. Digital trust is defined as the regulator-relevant justified confidence that digital and AI-enabled systems will behave predictably, remain under control and align with public interest outcomes throughout their full lifecycle. Operators must ensure that growing reliance on data-driven and automated decision making does not introduce new, emergent risks.

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The paper places digital trust in the context of the UK energy transition. Electrification, decentralization, and the growth of variable renewables are driving greater system complexity and dependence on real-time data and algorithmic coordination. Without appropriate trust frameworks, this shift creates new risks - from system resilience and outage management challenges to potential consumer harm and barriers to innovation. Evidence from network innovation projects shows that a lack of confidence in data quality, model behaviour, and governance is one of the main reasons digital and AI solutions struggle to move from pilots into business-as-usual deployment.