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Examine the policies and regulations guiding utility innovation, investment, and modernization.
*This schedule is filtered with Policy and Regulation sessions.
12:30 PM
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To attend this complimentary workshop, you must add this to your registration. This can be added to your registration when registering or after by visiting the visitor hub.
Utilities face a generational challenge in supporting massive load growth without compromising grid reliability or customer affordability. To meet this challenge, stakeholders have been rapidly innovating around large load interconnection, from engineering studies to interconnection models to cost allocation.
This workshop will introduce utilities and other stakeholders to a range of innovations being pursued, from some of the leading practitioners. It will begin with a review of the state of the data center pipeline today, and a presentation of high/mid/low integrated scenarios for large load growth. This will be followed by panel discussions between utilities, RTOs, and technology companies on the latest interconnection developments from across the country, with ample time reserved for Q&A. Attendees will come away with a firm grasp of where the industry is headed and which models they themselves may want to pursue to drive growth.
Part 1: The large load outlook and new interconnection models (12:30 PM – 2:00 PM)
Strategic planning for large load growth (12:30-1:00)
To open the workshop, we will begin with a review of the landscape of large load growth in the US. Beginning with a review of the data center pipeline today and supply-chain constraints, the presentation will outline Wood Mackenzie’s three long-term scenarios for large load growth, including power plant construction costs, natural gas prices, generation technology mix and annual large load demand. We’ll also consider technology factors, including power quality challenges for co-located generation and developments that could reduce long-term data center demand.
Presenter: Ben Hertz-Shargel, Wood Mackenzie
Interconnection 2.0 (1:00-1:40)This panel will bring together utilities at the forefront of large load interconnection reform. We will discuss advances in cluster studies, study process automation, and joint planning of load and generation. Best practices will be shared for utilities that are earlier in their large-load journey.
Panelists: Jahnavi Gopi, PG&E; Judson Tillinghast, APS; Nate Rice, Dominion
Scalable interconnection for the AI era (1:40-2:00)
Improving hosting capacity for data centers is a challenge that has rarely progressed past the policy level. This presentation will review Dominion’s transmission hosting capacity platform, which leverages flexible inputs and scenario modeling to automate interconnection planning, and discuss platform enhancements on the roadmap.
Presenters: Nate Rice, Dominion; Brian Bassett, Simple Thread
BREAK (2:00-2:30)
Part 2: Innovating for speed and affordability (2:30 PM – 5:00 PM)
Speed to Reliable Power at the RTO level (2:30-2:50)
RTOs are moving as quickly as utilities to reform planning and interconnection processes to accommodate large-load growth. This presentation will discuss MISO’s Large Load Additions initiative and the Speed to Reliable Power focus area. Learn the essentials of the new ERAS process and zero-injection model for accelerated generated interconnection and the EPR process for large load transmission approval.
Presenter: Jenna Furnish, MISO
A path toward affordable AI (2:50-3:30)
With customer affordability a topline focus of federal and state regulators, utilities and RTOs are pursuing a range of strategies to solve for reliability and speed-to-power while minimizing cost, particularly for non-large load customers. We’ll hear views on the solution set from RTO, utility and large load developer perspectives.
Moderator: Ben Hertz-Shargel, Wood Mackenzie
Panelists: Justin Felt, Exelon; Gabe Tabek, Verrus; Jenna Furnish, MISO
BREAK (3:30-3:50)
Bring-your-own-customer-capacity (3:50 – 4:20)
Utilities have a unique opportunity to solve for speed-to-power and affordability at the same time by leveraging their own customers as grid service providers. APS and EnergyHub have a long history of turning customer programs into utility-scale grid assets and will discuss how this approach can be further scaled to meet the large-load challenge.
Moderator: Matthew Johnson, EnergyHub
Panelist: Kerri Carnes, APS
Flexibility solutions for data center interconnection (4:20-5:00)
Utilities and large-load developers have a range of options to break the logjam of load interconnection requests by supporting flexible interconnections. We’ll hear about how this works in planning and in operations, and the role that both onsite batteries and third-party VPPs can play in delivering flexibility.
Moderator: Justin Felt, Exelon
Panelists: Sarah Colvin, Camus Energy; Adam Scarsella, Voltus; Gabe Tabak, Verrus
At the conclusion of the workshop, attendees will be invited to stay for an informal networking session with the speakers, which will immediately precede the Opening Reception.
In Partership with:
Speakers
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
3:45 PM
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This session, Applying Agentic AI to the Utility Rate Case Process, will explore how PPL Corporation is using specialized AI agents to transform the utility discovery response process, reducing a traditionally labor-intensive effort involving more than 100 employees into a faster, more accurate workflow completed in minutes. By coordinating SME, legal, and orchestration agents, PPL has improved response consistency, reduced duplicate effort, and minimized the risk of conflicting answers, while creating a repeatable framework that can be expanded across the broader rate case process to help utilities improve efficiency, governance, and regulatory outcomes.
9:45 AM
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The first year under the new federal administration has brought sweeping changes to U.S. energy policy - reviving fossil fuel incentives, reassessing decarbonization targets, and fast-tracking permitt …Speakers
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.
