West Power Introduces AI Q&A Service for Facility Operations

Learning from 35,000 Q&A Data Points
...Paving the Way for a Turning Point in Digital Innovation

Korea Western Power became the first power group company to launch the generative AI technology service "WP-GPT" on the 20th. Photo of Korea Western Power headquarters. Photo by Korea Western Power

Korea Western Power will apply an artificial intelligence (AI) question-and-answer service, developed for the first time among power group companies, to power plant facility operations.

On the 20th, Korea Western Power announced the launch of its generative AI service, "WP-GPT."

To establish a generative AI system within its internal network, Korea Western Power formed a dedicated task force early last year and set out a detailed implementation plan.

In June of the same year, the company launched the "Power Plant Technology Generative AI Construction Project" and released WP-GPT after just seven months of development.

During its development, WP-GPT learned from 1,432 internal documents and underwent additional training on approximately 35,000 Q&A data points before completing its pilot operation.

To prevent any leakage of power plant information in response to increasingly sophisticated hacking techniques, Korea Western Power completely separated WP-GPT from external communication networks in accordance with the National Intelligence Service's security guidelines for generative AI.

By utilizing WP-GPT, power plant facility managers can reduce their workload and focus more on high-value tasks such as facility analysis, on-site diagnostics, and safety management.

WPGPT Operation Concept Diagram. /Korea Western Power

The company expects this project to provide significant support for employees with low job proficiency, such as new hires.

WP-GPT can provide conversational Q&A services related to maintenance, procurement, construction, and safety, and also features English translation capabilities.

The company plans to further enhance WP-GPT by the end of the year so that it can draft power facility management reports, procurement specifications, and service/construction guidelines.

Additionally, the system will be improved to analyze failure causes and suggest maintenance directions by learning from case studies of equipment failures, maintenance, and corrective actions.

Lee Jeongbok, CEO of Korea Western Power, said, "By building the generative AI service WP-GPT in line with the era of digital transformation, we expect to reach an important turning point in digital innovation."

He added, "We will continue our efforts to foster a digital ecosystem by applying digital twin technology to the Gimpo Combined Heat and Power Plant, Korea's first standard combined power plant, and by promoting open access to power generation data and startup support projects through the Digital Technology Sharing Center."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.