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DTECH 2027 will connect global transmission and distribution leaders with the innovations and solutions that are transforming the grid, right in the backyard of one of the country's most forward-thinking energy giants. As our official host utility, Southern Company will help anchor the
technical conference program, providing utility-defined sessions and exclusive, firsthand tours of their cutting-edge facilities. While access to Southern Company’s experts and operations is a major draw, it's just one reason why Atlanta is an ideal destination for the 2027 flagship event.
At the Heart of Southeastern Grid Transformation
As the operational anchor of the Southeast, Atlanta is at the forefront of one of the nation's most important regional energy transitions. From pioneering advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to deploying cutting-edge grid automation, Atlanta’s regional utility network has long served as a national blueprint for system operations. Positioned within a territory defined by rapid economic expansion and pioneering utility strategies, the city serves as the definitive stage for regional insights that can be directly applied to grid architectures across the country.
The Crossroads of Load Growth & Clean Energy Integration
The Southeast is experiencing a major surge in energy demand, much of which is being driven by manufacturing investments and data center development. Atlanta offers a real-world look at how utilities are balancing this demand while also addressing carbon-reduction goals. There's no better place to see how the industry is scaling capacity without sacrificing grid stability.
World-Class Accessibility
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s most connected transit hub, making travel a breeze for domestic and international attendees alike. Additionally, the Georgia World Congress Center is capable of housing thousands of utility professionals under one roof and is surrounded by a variety of walkable hotel and dining options.
Built for Utility-Driven Collaborations
With its deep-rooted history as a nexus for engineering excellence and industrial commerce, Atlanta naturally fosters cross-sector alignment. The city offers a high-trust forum where investor-owned utilities, public power networks, electric cooperatives, and international stakeholders can break down operational silos. It's an ideal place to see what it means to turn grid concepts into deployable solutions.
Where Today’s Grid Meets Tomorrow’s Reality
Managing the energy transition means maintaining legacy asset reliability while simultaneously embracing disruptive technological innovation. Because Atlanta sits at the intersection of every major T&D priority, its the ideal place to experience real-world successes in action and take home scalable strategies for the future.
Projects Shaping the Renaissance
While utility innovations are taking place across the world, with DTECH taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, the focus on the American South as it anchors the global AI data center boom and utility infrastructure renaissance has been more pronounced. The region is actively rewriting the blueprint for fast-track load integration by scaling high-voltage transmission, deploying self-healing distribution grids, and utilizing predictive AI to transform a historic load surge into a masterclass in grid modernization.
The projects below represent how this renaissance is being realized across the region in a way that will take center stage at DTECH 2027.
Transmission Expansion & Cross-Interconnection Scaling
To clear its growing backlog of power projects, the Tennessee Valley Authority launched an upgraded Resource Solicitation Cluster (RSC) system and an Expedited Resource Study process to better allow for optimized generator interconnection modeling and quicker integration of regional transmission upgrades.
A monumental merchant transmission initiative designed to link ERCOT with the Southeastern energy market will provides a critical high-voltage direct current (HVDC) highway capable of bidirectional power sharing, significantly easing regional congestion across state borders.
Southern Company is implementing multi-state transmission line infrastructure reinforcement, focusing heavily on wide-area monitoring systems (WAMS), dynamic line rating (DLR) technologies to optimize thermal capacity in real-time, and target hardening to mitigate extreme weather and physical security risks.
Handling Massive Data Center Load & Industrial Growth
Georgia Power is fast-tracking nearly 9,900 MW of new capacity resources via comprehensive All-Source RFPs, establishing stringent new financial readiness criteria for large-load interconnections to protect residential ratepayers.
Duke Energy has expanded its five-year capital plan to a record $103 billion, dedicating approximately 65% of that entire capital spend strictly to grid infrastructure to reliably onboard tech-sector megawatt demand across the Carolinas.
Massive battery storage nodes are being deployed across the region, highlighted by TVA's partnership to develop the 225-MW Bobwhite Energy Storage project in Tennessee and Entergy’s localized sub-station storage deployments.
Distribution Grid & Smart Modernization
Duke’s initiative to utilize advanced automated loop restoration switches and AMI automatically detects distribution-level faults, isolates the damage, and reroutes power in under 60 seconds, drastically minimizing SAIDI/SAIFI outage metrics for millions of customers.
Targeting highly vulnerable coastal distribution circuits across Louisiana and Mississippi, Entergy is deploying intelligent distribution automation (DA) devices, substations elevated against storm surges, and strategic undergrounding programs to maintain localized grid visibility during intense climate events.
AI & Next-Gen Grid Intelligence
Duke Energy’s mobile app AI engine provides direct, plain-language consumer billing insights based on localized weather trends, as well as enterprise-level ML algorithms predicting neighborhood-level load shifts caused by EV adoption.
By predicting customer usage patterns hours in advance, TVA’s use of AI is designed to automatically shifts commercial and industrial HVAC and battery loads to flatten peak demand curves across the Valley.
