Learn how utilities are adapting to a more complex and competitive energy market while maintaining system stability and customer value.

The evolving landscape of bulk power and energy markets is reshaping how utilities procure, dispatch, and plan for reliable electricity. This topic explores how market design, transmission planning, interregional coordination, and decarbonization policies are influencing utility operations and long-term strategy. Sessions will cover capacity markets, ancillary services, renewable integration, and the role of utilities in shaping market rules and structures to meet reliability, affordability, and sustainability goals.

Sponsored by:

OATI

Featured content

Education Sessions

From Constraint to Customer: Rethinking NWS Program Design within a DSO-enabled Flexibility Market

February 03, 2026

To address accelerating demand growth and distribution system constraints, Alectra Utilities is strengthening its approach to Non-Wires Solutions (NWS) through the development of more responsive and flexible customer programs. In collaboration with EPE, Alectra is modernizing how these programs are designed to better harness the potential of distributed energy resources (DERs) and defer the need for traditional infrastructure investments.

Education Sessions

DSO by Design: Making Market-Ready the New Business as Usual

February 04, 2026

This presentation will detail Alectra’s practical journey toward DSO maturity, highlighting how we are embedding new tools and processes directly into our existing systems. We will explore how we’re developing advanced operational planning capabilities, including real-time power flow analysis, robust DER forecasting engines, and probabilistic scenario and risk management tools—enabling a shift from static worst-case assumptions to dynamic, stochastic techno-economic planning.

Education Sessions

One Year Later: Managing the Large Load Surge in a New Federal Policy Era

February 04, 2026

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 permitting for large-scale industrial and data center developments. In the meantime, utilities are experiencing an unprecedented surge in electricity demand driven by AI-powered data centers, fleet electrification, advanced manufacturing, and reindustrialization movement. 

Bulk power and energy markets educational opportunities

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10:00 AM
  1. 26AB
    50 mins
    As Ontario’s energy landscape rapidly evolves—with accelerating electrification and a surge in Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)—the role of Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) must fundamentally ch …
2:00 PM
  1. 6F
    50 mins
    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 …