2026 Event Schedule

As utilities face mounting pressure to modernize infrastructure while meeting rising customer expectations, two critical capabilities have emerged: seamless customer communication/experiences and scalable demand flexibility programs. This session showcases how Avista Corporation and Uplight are transforming utility-customer experience through cloud-powered innovation on AWS. Avista Corporation, a 135-year-old energy and gas utility serving 800,000 customers across the Pacific Northwest, embarked on a contact center transformation journey using Amazon Connect. Under the leadership of Alexis Alexander—whose unique career path spans from Demand Side Management Engineer to CIO—Avista scaled their contact center capacity from 168 to 1500 calls per hour while delivering omnichannel customer experiences that rival best-in-class consumer brands. This cloud-native foundation enables Avista to communicate effectively with customers during peak demand periods, emergency response situations, and energy program enrollment campaigns. Uplight, a leading customer engagement and grid flexibility platform, enables utilities to engage millions of customers in load flexibility programs at scale. Jesse Demmel, CTO with over 15 years of technology leadership experience, leads their AWS-powered cloud-native platform that orchestrates a broad spectrum of distributed energy resources, including smart thermostats, electric vehicles, batteries, and more, into virtual power plants and other demand-side programs, managing over 8.5 gigawatts of global demand flexibility. Uplight's platform achieves customer satisfaction scores matching Amazon marketplace standards—demonstrating that utilities can deliver exceptional customer experiences while achieving critical grid modernization goals. Together, these stories illustrate the convergence of customer experience excellence and grid operations to deliver critical grid flexibility. Avista's contact center transformation creates the communication foundation for customer engagement, while Uplight's platform orchestrates customer participation in demand flexibility programs. Both leverage AWS cloud infrastructure to deliver utility-scale solutions with consumer-grade experiences. Attendees will learn practical strategies for modernizing customer engagement infrastructure, scaling demand flexibility programs, and leveraging cloud technology to meet both customer expectations and grid reliability objectives. This session provides actionable insights for utilities of all sizes seeking to balance operational excellence with customer-centric innovation.

Session Sponsored by AWS