North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, Southwest Power Pool, the Colville Tribes, California ISO and Brookfield Renewable won the first OATI Grid Intelligence Awards. Here is what each built, and why it won.
On the last evening of the OATI Energy Conference 2026, October 8 at the Wynn Las Vegas, OATI presented its Grid Intelligence Awards for the first time.
“Tonight is actually the first time we present these awards, in support of our vision to create stronger customer relationships and showcase all of our customers in new ways.”
Stephanie Kolodziej, Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Engagement, OATI
The awards recognize the utilities, organizations and industry leaders shaping the future of energy through innovation, leadership and measurable impact. Five were presented, across grid modernization, market innovation, industry impact and AI.
Grid Modernization Award: North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives
North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives run OATI webSmartEnergy® DERMS to manage the distributed energy resources on their systems.
Why it won: the cooperatives chose OATI for real-time DERMS, coordinating distributed resources as conditions change rather than after the fact. The award recognizes that deployment as grid modernization a cooperative can put to work today.
Market Innovation Award: Southwest Power Pool
Southwest Power Pool’s RTO Expansion took its market west. In April, SPP took over balancing in the West and began optimizing its RTO market across the DC ties between the Eastern and Western interconnections.
“We are now optimizing across DC ties, which is something no one has done in North America that I’m aware of.”
Carrie Simpson, Vice President, Markets, Southwest Power Pool
Why it won: one market operating across two interconnections is a new design for North American markets, and SPP made it work in operation. OATI COO Kevin Sarkinen accepted the award on SPP’s behalf.
Industry Impact Award: Colville Tribes
The Colville Tribes faced declining service quality, power outages and rising energy costs on their homelands. With OATI providing design, engineering and deployment, the Tribes are building microgrids orchestrated by OATI GridMind®, with the goals of improved reliability, fewer outages, economic development and long-term independence. EVolution™ EV chargers are installed on the reservation as part of the same partnership.
Why it won: the project turns energy sovereignty into infrastructure the Tribes control, for a community the grid has served poorly. OATI’s Tim Clashin accepted the award on the Tribes’ behalf.
AI Intelligence Award, Reliability: California ISO
California ISO runs OATI AI Genie™ in its outage management work. At California ISO, AI Genie™ analyzes more than 500 next-day outage requests in under eight minutes each night, with California ISO personnel retaining final authority over outage approvals and every consequential grid decision.
Why it won: it is AI working inside real-time grid operations, with people in charge of every decision that matters.
AI Intelligence Award, Merchant: Brookfield Renewable
Brookfield Renewable was recognized for AI-assisted settlements and trading. Brookfield uses AI to compare executed contracts against the confirmations counterparties send, a review that now takes seconds, Pascal Lanouette, Brookfield’s vice president of operational strategy, told the EC26 Executive Summit.
Why it won: Brookfield builds its AI work from a stop-do list of manual, low-value tasks, and redesigns whole processes rather than single steps. The result is AI at work on the merchant side of the business.
From workshop to winners
That evening, OATI’s John Engel also recognized participants in the AI Use Case Challenge, a workshop held earlier that day in which customers worked through the problems they most want AI to solve. The winning idea will be developed by the OATI AI team, along with complimentary service for one year.
See the moments from the week, the keynotes and the 2026 Grid Intelligence Awards in the OATI Energy Conference 2026 recap.
Keep exploring
- SPP’s western expansion: the market behind the Market Innovation Award
- Microgrids for tribes: OATI’s microgrid work with the Colville Tribes and the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians
- OATI AI Genie™: energy-native AI, already in the control room
- Threads of Connectivity: Energy & The Grid: the mini-documentary episode on OATI, hosted on National Geographic’s digital platforms
- The EC26 recap: keynotes, sessions and the 2026 Grid Intelligence Awards
Save the date
OATI Energy Conference 2027
October 6-8, 2027 · Encore Las Vegas