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. 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.

Get a clear overview of recent federal tax credit developments — such as zero‑emission and clean energy incentives — and the practical requirements that come with them, including prevailing wage and apprenticeship rules. Discuss what public power utilities need to know to stay compliant, access available benefits, and avoid common pitfalls with grid modernization projects. Gain a better understanding of how today’s tax policies intersect with infrastructure planning, clean energy investments, and long‑term financial strategy.

How does strong operational discipline lead to exceptional customer experiences? Shrewsbury Electric & Cable Operations recently earned a Gold Public Power Customer Satisfaction Award, with approval ratings above 95% across key areas like reliability, outage response, communication, and innovation. Using SELCO’s experience as a practical case study, gain insight into the organizational practices and response strategies that drive high satisfaction. Discuss actionable ideas to strengthen outage coordination, improve communication during critical events, and build a culture of accountability and trust.

Get a comparative overview of the small modular reactor and other advanced nuclear technologies in various stages of development and deployment across the globe. Learn about the major types of advanced nuclear technologies, including the advantages and challenges of each design and where they stand in the development pipeline. Discuss how the different technologies can align with your utility’s decarbonization and grid modernization goals and how the evolving regulatory and investment landscape could affect adoption.