1920s Vision: Is Grid Planning Ready for the Future?

Hear from leadership at the Regional Transmission Organizations about how they are reforming transmission planning to comply with Order No. 1920, additional steps they have or will be taking to expand transmission, what's working well, what isn't, and where transmission is actually getting built (and why).

Mark Sims

PJM

Laura Rauch

MISO Energy

Elise Caplan

ACORE

Tony Green

SPP

BAAJA: Clearing the Path for an Affordable and Reliable Grid

The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA) could mark a sea change in how energy projects are permitted in the United States. Hear directly from Congressional staff who helped negotiate the bill for an inside look at how the package came together, the hurdles that remain before passage, and what they hope it will ultimately achieve.

Adam Tomlinson

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for Chairman Shelley Moore Capito

Janelle DiLuccia

Office of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Networking Break

Capacity Markets: Diagnosing a Chronic Condition

This conversation will take a hard look at what's ailing energy and capacity markets today, and whether the fixes on the table are a cure or just another bandaid. Can current market constructs be rehabilitated, or is it time for an overhaul?

William Fields

Maryland Office of Peoples Council

Suzanne Glatz

Glatz Energy Consulting LLC

Evelyn Robinson

MAREC

Katie Siegner

RMI

Keynote Conversation: Meeting the Demand Challenge: Grid, Permitting, and Market Reforms

AI and data center growth is outpacing the grid's ability to deliver power. This session examines the demand uncertainty and the resulting supply-side response alongside policy headwinds like data center moratoriums and state-level clean energy divergence, laying out a base-case "all of the above" path through the grid's capacity crunch.

Xizhou Zhou

Wood Mackenzie

Networking Lunch

Power Struggle: Paying for the Grid of the Future

Interregional transmission delivers value across state lines and utility footprints — so why is funding it so hard? This panel compares the tools on the table for closing that gap, from dedicated grid grants and price collared compensation structures to lessons from the Transmission Facilitation Program and a proposed transmission investment tax credit, while weighing the capacity value transmission actually delivers.

Jennifer Chen

RAP

Madeline Gould Laughlin

Grid United

Joshua Macey

Yale Law School

Mark Scher

CoVolt

Jonathan Geldof

ACORE

Networking Break

Gridmaxxing: ATTs and the Art of Doing More With What You've Got

This session digs into how advanced transmission technologies are actually being implemented on the ground: what's working, what's stalling out, and why. Panelists will also speak to some of ATTs' most underappreciated payoffs like line loss savings and resilience benefits.

Brooke Keene

SPP

Theodore Paradise

CTC Global

Georg Rute

Gridraven

Carla Pinzon

Expand Power Technologies, Inc.

Zachary Zimmerman

Grid Strategies

Cost Allocation: An Immovable Object Meets an Unstoppable Force

Large loads are back, bigger than ever, and dragging cost allocation into the spotlight again. This panel tackles who pays as large loads reshape the grid: the jurisdictional fights, the push-and-pull between co-location and proximate resources versus broader grid expansion, and the benefits and risks of curtailable large load and how to keep clean energy and storage in the mix as large loads come online.

Bryn Baker

CEBA

Jeff Bladen

Verrus Data Centers

Matt Christiansen

Wilson Sonsini

Morgan Sipple

Data Center Coalition

Craig Sundstrom

Amazon Web Services

ACORE Energy Drinks: Networking Reception