Resource adequacy is not a new challenge — but accelerating load growth, driven in large part by AI, data centers, electrification, and changing customer expectations, is pushing long standing planning assumptions to their limits. For utility CEOs, the question is no longer whether resource pressures will intensify, but how quickly — and how decisively leaders must respond.
Modernizing operational technology is no longer optional — it’s essential for reliability, efficiency, and meeting customer expectations. Hear how a panel of utility leaders from small, mid-sized, and large public power utilities approached the challenges and opportunities of technology modernization. From integrating new systems to managing cybersecurity risks, optimizing grid operations, and balancing innovation with budget constraints, get perspective on what planning and implementation strategies fit with your utility’s size and resources.
Earning designation as a Reliable Public Power Provider or Smart Energy Provider can be more than just an honor — they can be powerful tools to improve and hone your operations. Learn how ElectriCities of North Carolina embedded these programs into its strategic priorities, using member participation and aggregate scoring to identify strengths, close gaps, and guide new services. Learn how using these assessments can strengthen continuous improvement and strategic alignment across your utility, whether for long‑term planning, program development, or to provide a roadmap for operational excellence.
Distributed front-of-the-meter battery energy storage systems and flexible loads are transforming how public power utilities manage costs and reliability. Review strategies for deploying these resources to strengthen system performance, reduce peak demand, lower wholesale exposure, and defer costly capital upgrades. Hear which real-world approaches your public power colleagues are using for planning, coordination, and implementation of storage assets into their systems to access dispatchable capacity that supports resource adequacy, integrates renewables, and fills operational gaps.
Public power utilities deliver reliable, safe, community-owned energy — but many struggle to clearly communicate what makes them unique, valuable community assets. Explore what your public power colleagues in the Northeast have achieved through outreach campaigns, messaging, and employee education initiatives. Learn strategies for aligning external communications with internal education, ensuring frontline employees — such as customer service representatives and lineworkers — are confident, knowledgeable ambassadors that can help build customer trust, boost engagement, and deepen understanding of public power’s value.
Get the inside scoop on how Fitch, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor rate your credit and municipal bond issues directly from representatives from all three agencies. Learn how each views the latest global trends and threats to utilities as working for and against public power — and your utility’s — financial strength in a competitive market. Discuss the steps your board and managers should take to put your utility in the best position to raise capital.
Stay current on the regulatory issues shaping public power. Get a concise overview of key FERC and NERC priorities, emerging reliability and market topics, and the federal trends affecting utility planning and operations. Learn how federal antitrust reviews intersect with FERC oversight — an increasingly important factor as utilities pursue new generation and infrastructure projects in a high‑demand environment. Gain practical insight into what’s changing, what to watch, and how to prepare for evolving federal scrutiny of utility actions and investments.
Understand the difference in the power generation mix of the various regions and why those differences lead to residential power prices being 2 to 3 times as high in some regions as other lower cost regions. The energy resources a region has access to is very important to ultimate cost of retail power in the regions. Couple that with a state level legislative/regulatory factors and the residential costs differences are much more understandable.
