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.

  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?

90 GW of new data centers are expected to plug into the transmission grid by 2030, and grid operators are scrambling to find capacity for them. Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) unlock latent capacity on existing transmission lines, often shrinking upgrade timelines to less than two years and saving tens or hundreds of millions in costs.  This session will share lessons learned from US deployments where embracing innovation allowed new load to plug in faster and at lower cost.

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.

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