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Used by major cloud providers to ensure extreme efficiency and a massive physical footprint, this model supports big data and cloud computing. Learn how and why hyperscale facilities are built to house thousands (or even millions) of servers that can be scaled up or down almost instantly.
*This schedule is filtered with Hyperscale 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
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 …
8:30 AM
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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.
10:45 AM
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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
1:45 PM
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The rapid growth of hyperscale, AI, and high-density data centers is driving unprecedented load additions across North American power systems, introducing new reliability, planning, and operational ch …
