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Artificial intelligence is reshaping the energy landscape—and electric utilities are uniquely positioned to utilize generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to drive innovation, improve resilience, and enhance customer experience.
*This schedule is filtered with Artificial Intelligence sessions.
8:15 AM
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Is Meeting Data Center Demand an Opportunity to Redefine the Future for Utilities?
Demand from data centers and AI represents the most significant load growth challenge for the utility sector in a generation. However, this challenge isn't just about adding capacity but is instead about fundamentally rethinking how, when, and where that power is generated and delivered. Ensuring reliable, affordable power for all will create transformative opportunities across the sector.
Join EPRI President and CEO Arshad Mansoor for an opening address that will detail how and why meeting this demand isn't just about energy efficiency, but a critical opportunity for utilities to shape their own future and enhance system resilience. His remarks will highlight how utilities can move beyond traditional planning to address data centers' unique needs and what it means to lead the conversation around distributed generation and new energy sources. Attendees will learn strategies to establish the next-generation energy paradigms that will help define the path forward.
The Next Evolution of AI: Defining the Future of Utility Forecasting
Unprecedented demand from data centers and AI mean that forecasting is no longer about extrapolating historical trends but instead about anticipating behaviors and needs, driven by DERs, extreme weather, and new load profiles. This panel will explore how leaders from across the space are doing so, as they move beyond proof-of-concept and discuss production-ready models that fundamentally redefine grid planning and operations.
Panelists will outline what it means to leverage advanced AI to simulate thousands of real-world future grid states, enabling utilities to stress-test resource portfolios and optimize interconnection queues by accurately forecasting unknown, high-growth load types. The discussion will also address the necessary data standards and required governance to ensure AI-driven forecasting is not only accurate but also understandable.
Speakers
10:45 AM
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As electric grids become more dynamic, distributed, and digitally connected, and as the pace of change accelerates—utility control centers must evolve to manage vast volumes of data, adapt to rapidly changing grid conditions, and maintain high reliability under growing stress. Can AI meet these challenges, or is it still more hype than breakthroughs? This session explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can move from concept to reality in grid operations. With mounting pressure to maintain situational awareness, operational effectiveness, and grid reliability, the industry is wondering:
- How can AI be embedded into control room environments to augment operator capabilities?
- Can AI be integrated into Energy Management Systems (EMS), forecasting, event detection, and decision-making processes?
- What are the examples of AI delivering tangible results in outage response, dispatch strategies, and load/generation forecasting, especially under conditions of high renewable and DER penetration, volatile market dynamics, and extreme weather events?
The speakers will challenge traditional assumptions about control center roles and responsibilities, and share insights on how AI can reshape the workflows, enable a smarter, more adaptive grid. Whether you’re operating the control room, modernizing infrastructure, or developing advanced analytics, this session will provide a practical view of what AI can deliver today and what innovations are just ahead.
Join us to explore: What is possible with AI in grid operations?
9:45 AM
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Demand growth driven by data centers and AI utilities and developers face increasing complexity in planning and integration. AI-driven infrastructure is further reshaping demand characteristics, introducing high power density, steep ramp rates, large peak-to-average ratios, and highly variable operating profiles. This session provides a focused overview of large and AI-based load integration, organized around utility requirements and the behind-the-meter design strategies used to meet them.
The utility requirements segment will provide an overview of new and emerging utility requirements for interconnecting large loads. The session will also provide insight as to why new requirements are being considered and how these can impact the operation of AI loads.
The second segment shifts to the customer and developer perspective, focusing on how behind-the-meter system design can be aligned with utility requirements. The session will provide examples highlighting design strategies and technology solutions used to mitigate grid impacts, including on-site energy storage systems, UPS, and power conditioning equipment, software-defined power controls, load ramp-rate management, and flexible operating modes.
12:45 PM
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This panel will discuss the legal challenges and recent regulatory developments that have affected the provision of energy to data centers in recent months. This is a quickly developing area of law, and one essential to the U.S.’s ability to remain competitive in the world of artificial intelligence. The panel will address regulations at both the state and federal levels. For example, the panel will discuss a recent FERC decision denying PJM’s request to approve a proposed amended interconnection service agreement to supply more power to an Amazon Web Services data center using a co-location arrangement. Former Chairman Phillips dissented from that decision on the ground that refusing to approve agreements like the one at issue there would “creat[e] unnecessary roadblocks for an industry,” namely, AI, “that is necessary for national security.” The decision is currently pending on appeal before the Third Circuit. The panel will also address other regulatory developments and will offer a lively and informative conversation about the way regulations at the state and federal level are affecting the ability to provide power to data centers.
