Opening Remarks: Why Storage is the New Primary Grid Infrastructure

AI hasn’t just increased power demand; it’s changed its shape. Data center compute workloads ramp in seconds, creating large demand fluctuations and power quality issues that are disrupting long-term utility load planning. This isn’t a capacity crisis — it’s a flexibility crisis, and it’s why “Bring Your Own Power” is fast becoming the dominant strategy for large AI loads.

Through storage-integrated architecture, data centers can transform from grid liabilities into flexibility assets that reconcile developer speed with utility reliability. Join Jeff Monday, Chief Growth Officer at Fluence, to see why storage is no longer supporting infrastructure — it’s becoming the power operating system of the AI economy, and the blueprint for interconnection that delivers value both today and over the next 20 years.

Keynote Panel: Aligning Developer, Utility, Community and Regulatory Interests

While the “how fast” and “how much” questions related to data center demand are well understood, actual answers ultimately depend on regional regulations, local grid health, community awareness and site-specific configurations. Success in this new landscape is about more than solutions and systems, but instead requires a new level of transparency and partnership between the people behind the power, on every side, and at every level. 

Join us to explore what better connections between developers, utilities, regulators and communities can look like in order to reconcile their differing priorities to create a unified roadmap for the future of the grid.

Utilities and data center developers want the same thing: large loads connected to the grid, quickly, reliably, and affordably. But the current large load interconnection process wasn't designed for the speed or scale the market demands. Flexible grid connections offer a practical path forward. By combining firm and conditional service, utilities can unlock significantly more capacity on existing transmission infrastructure while data centers manage the limited constrained hours with on-site resources like batteries, generators, or compute flexibility. A recent study of six 500 MW data center sites within PJM, backed by Google, found that flexible connections increased available capacity at constrained sites by 1.5x to 2.3x, with grid power available more than 99% of hours and on-site resources dispatched roughly 40 hours per year.

In this session, a panel of hyperscale developers and utility leaders will share their takes on flexible connections, what's needed to offer and accept flexible service with confidence, how they impact affordability for all customers, and what to expect for the rest of 2026. 

Sponsored by