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Discover how utilities are using data and digital tools to manage aging assets, reduce risk, and plan smarter infrastructure investments.
*This schedule is filtered with Asset Management sessions.
2:45 PM
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The utility industry is caught in a high-stakes balancing act: deploying AI to manage a smarter grid while struggling to feed the energy-hungry GPUs that make AI possible. This session, hosted by EPRI …
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During this session, watch a drone will take off at an energy facility thousands of miles from Scottsdale. It will fly a live inspection mission. The presenters will control it from the stage.
No pre-recorded footage. No simulation.
The drone is a permanently stationed, autonomous aerial system that launches on demand and transmits thermal and visual data in real time. Utilities and infrastructure operators are deploying these systems to inspect substations, transmission corridors, distribution equipment, and large-load facilities without rolling a truck or putting a crew in the field. The same system secures facility perimeters and responds to alarms autonomously. More than 450 energy companies trust Skydio to help them inspect and protect critical infrastructure today.
As AI-driven load growth pushes infrastructure buildout faster than traditional inspection programs can follow, this session covers what automated aerial operations look like in practice: how missions are triggered, what the data looks like, and where operators are finding real reductions in truck rolls and time-to-find on equipment anomalies.
Session Sponsored by
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.
