Shaping the future: What to expect at the OATI Energy Conference 2026

Speakers to be announced soon

Grid modernization investments are some of the largest capital decisions utilities will make this decade. This consultant roundtable brings together leading energy advisory firms to share how they help utilities right-size grid modernization investments: phasing deployments to match program maturity, sequencing T&D and smart grid investments in coordination to maximize impact and minimize costs, and building defensible business cases for regulators.

A focused fundamentals session for operations staff who need to come up to speed quickly on Advanced Available Flowgate Capability concepts. Walks through the underlying methodology, the OATI workflow, common operational scenarios, and frequent points of confusion.

NERC CE-eligible deep dive. As demand-side resources scale, the coordination problem between distribution operators, transmission operators, and wholesale markets becomes the binding constraint on flexibility. This session goes deep into the operational mechanics: how dispatch signals flow from RTO to DSO to aggregator, how visibility flows the other direction, and how to shore up gaps at the seams.

Customer-only roadmap session for webTrader and webCTRM. Format: 30 minutes OATI presentation on near-term roadmap, followed by 15 minutes of structured customer input and discussion.

Often overshadowed by the branding of Virtual Power Plants, demand response remains a critical reliability and affordability tool for utilities. But don’t be mistaken: the next generation of DR programs are far from sleepy. They’re automated, measured, and market-integrated. This session walks through what DR 2.0 looks like in practice — including the commercialization strategies that make DR a viable utility revenue stream.

SPP Markets+ launch brings a new western day-ahead market footprint and a new set of operational requirements for participants. This session covers what utilities need to have in place for day-one operations on Markets+: the OATI scheduling, settlement, and risk workflows that support participation; data and integration requirements; and how the platform handles the seams between Markets+, EDAM, and existing balancing authority operations.

A single back-to-back block of 15-minute customer use case presentations. Each presenter walks through one specific use case: the problem, the OATI workflow used, and the measurable outcome.

Renewable Energy Credits, Clean Energy Credits, and emerging environmental attribute markets have grown from a back-office accounting exercise to a multi-billion-dollar position management problem — and most utilities still manage it in spreadsheets. This session examines what enterprise-grade REC management looks like: automated certificate retirement, mark-to-market valuation, cross-registry reconciliation, audit-ready chains of custody, and integration with portfolio risk systems.

Customer-only roadmap session for OATI webSmartEnergy DERMS. Format: 30 minutes OATI presentation on near-term roadmap and feature priorities, followed by 15 minutes of structured customer input and discussion. We are explicitly seeking customer contribution — bring your priorities and your friction points.

OATI is the platform of choice for utilities entering CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market — and that choice has consequences for how a utility’s trading, scheduling, and settlement operations are built. This crash course walks through the OATI EDAM solution architecture, the operational workflows it supports, and the integration points that have surfaced from early entrants. Includes a near-term roadmap segment for upcoming functionality.

California ISO is one of the first North American grid operators to deploy AI in production for outage management. This session, presented by CAISO’s Gopakumar Gopinathan, walks through the deployment in detail: the operational problem AI was brought in to solve, the data and integration work that made it possible, how operators interact with the system, and the measurable outcomes since go-live (outage processing time reduced from 6 hours to 30 minutes). Attendees will leave with a clear picture of what a production AI deployment in a control room actually looks like — and what it takes to get there.

Customer-only roadmap session for the OATI Genie platform. Format: 30 minutes OATI presentation covering the four agent types (Workflow, Advisor, Reconnaissance, Autonomous) and near-term roadmap, followed by 15 minutes of structured customer input on agent priorities and use case interest.

OATI has developed a new product for AFC Flow transmission modeling. This session walks through what’s new: the modeling improvements, the workflow changes, the integration impacts, and what customers need to do to take advantage of having an end-end integrated flowbased AFC solution. Includes a live demonstration.

The DERMS conversation has matured rapidly — but for utilities just beginning the journey, the question is no longer whether to deploy, but where to start. This session walks attendees through the practical first steps of a DERMS implementation: building the business case, defining initial use cases (DER visibility, demand response, EV charging coordination), aligning IT and operations stakeholders, and selecting an architecture that scales as the program grows.

Customer-only roadmap session covering webTrans. Format: 30 minutes OATI presentation on the platform’s near-term roadmap, followed by 15 minutes of structured customer input.

A focused fundamentals session for operations staff on real-time battery and VPP dispatch through OATI. Walks through the dispatch workflow from asset selection through dispatch signal generation, telemetry verification, and post-dispatch reconciliation. Designed for operations staff at utilities running battery and VPP programs.

A focused fundamentals session covering enterprise risk management workflows in OATI: VaR and stress testing, position aggregation across trading books and physical assets, credit and counterparty exposure monitoring, and the integration points with trading and scheduling operations.

A customer-only deep dive into the OATI Genie roadmap for transmission and outage management. CAISO’s production deployment of Genie for AI-powered outage management is one of the first at-scale operational AI deployments in a North American control room. Now, Genie is expanding into BA capacity analysis and other transmission applications. This session walks customers through the current capabilities, the near-term roadmap, and gathers customer input on priorities.

A single back-to-back block of 15-minute customer use case presentations. Each presenter walks through one specific use case: the problem, the OATI workflow used, and the measurable outcome.

Microgrids provide local resilience in isolation. When deployed and managed at scale, however, a fleet of microgrids can provide unique, system-wide benefits to utilities and the communities they serve. This session explores how a leading electric cooperative orchestrates a fleet of microgrids, battery storage, and solar PV assets with OATI webSmartEnergy DERMS and the GridMind asset and microgrid control suite. Expect dispatch screens, fleet performance data, and a candid discussion of what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next.

A customer-only deep dive into use cases and functionality plans for AI in OATI’s distributed energy resource management system. Explore how generative and agentic AI from OATI Genie can impact distribution planning and operations, including DER forecasting, dispatch optimization, and operator decision support. Attendees will see live demonstrations of Genie features, hear customer experiences from early adopters, and have an opportunity to shape priorities through direct dialogue with the product and engineering teams.

A focused fundamentals session covering the full REC lifecycle: registering a REC, accounting for usage, risk management, and optimization. Designed for operations and back-office staff who manage renewable energy credit portfolios on OATI applications.

NERC CE-eligible deep dive. As demand-side resources scale, the coordination problem between distribution operators, transmission operators, and wholesale markets becomes the binding constraint on flexibility. This session goes deep on the operational mechanics: how dispatch signals flow from RTO to DSO to aggregator, how visibility flows the other direction, and how to shore up gaps at the seams.

A customer-only deep dive into specific applications of AI from OATI Genie in energy trading and market solutions. Learn how AI is already supporting price forecasting, congestion analysis, trading strategies, and automated bid construction. This session covers the current OATI Genie capabilities for trading and risk, the near-term roadmap, and how customers are integrating AI-driven analytics into existing workflows.

Behind every resilient grid are leaders navigating change, building confidence, solving complex challenges and lifting others along the way. Women Powering the Grid brings together influential women from across the energy industry for an honest and inspiring conversation about leadership journeys, career inflection points, and the support systems that helped them succeed.

Available Transfer Capability (ATC) and Unscheduled Transmission Capability (UTC) calculations sit at the intersection of transmission operations, markets, and reliability — and they have historically been constrained by the computational cost of running full security-constrained analyses at speed. This session presents findings from OATI development of AI-accelerated ATC/UTC calculations, including modeling approach, validation methodology, and the operational implications of running these calculations at near-real-time cadence.

Enterprise grid controls produce benefits in sometimes unexpected places. Find out how TVA, the largest generation and transmission organization in the country, uses OATI DERMS to orchestrate DER events — from the trading desk.

A focused fundamentals session for operations staff on real-time battery and VPP dispatch through OATI. Walks through the dispatch workflow from asset selection through dispatch signal generation, telemetry verification, and post-dispatch reconciliation. Designed for operations staff at utilities running battery and VPP programs.

A focused fundamentals session for utilities preparing to participate in CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market. Walks through the operational workflows, scheduling rhythms, settlement implications, and integration touchpoints. Designed for operations and trading staff who need to come up to speed quickly on EDAM participation.

The next two years bring the most significant expansion of mandatory reliability standards in over a decade. This session is built around what operational compliance actually requires — and the OATI modules and workflows that enable it. Coverage includes: the final IBR tranche under FERC Order 901 (planning and operational studies, due November 2026, full implementation by 2030); NERC Project 2026-02 on large computational loads, including the Level 3 Alert and the path toward registration and standards for data center loads; FERC Order 919 and the new CIP virtualization standards (effective April 2028); TPL-008-1 for extreme temperature transmission planning; revisions to EOP-012-2 for cold weather preparedness; and the registration of previously-unregistered IBRs above 20 MVA / 60 kV by November 2026. Each standard is paired with the OATI module or workflow that supports compliance.

AMI 2.0 turns the meter from a billing endpoint into a real-time operational asset. But the real magic occurs when AMI 2.0 is paired with the power and reach of real-time DERMS. The result is a class of use cases that were previously impossible: sub-second load disaggregation, dynamic voltage optimization at the secondary, behind-the-meter DER visibility without separate gateways, and customer-facing programs that respond in real time. This session, co-presented by OATI and Landis+Gyr, walks through how unified DERMS and AMI 2.0 architectures are being deployed in production.

A combined customer-only fundamentals session covering thermostat administration workflows and VPP optimization basics. Designed for new and recently-hired operations and management staff at utilities running demand response and VPP programs through OATI.

NERC CE-eligible deep dive. Enterprise DERMS is not a control-room product bolted onto distribution operations — it is the data and orchestration backbone that connects planning, operations, customer programs, and markets. This deep dive examines the architecture of enterprise DERMS: data models that span IT and OT, role-based access models, integration patterns with ADMS, OMS, AMI, MDM, and CIS, and the cybersecurity controls required when distribution control data must flow across the enterprise.

A focused fundamentals session covering automated trading workflows on OATI webTrader: building rule-based strategies, market-aware order types, execution monitoring, and the controls and limits that keep automated trading inside risk tolerances.

The fastest path to new transmission capacity may already exist — it is just underutilized. Grid enhancing technologies (GETs), led by dynamic line ratings (DLR), enable utilities to increase throughput on existing conductors by 10–30% without new construction. But realizing that capacity requires real-time situational awareness, sensor data integration, and operational systems capable of acting on dynamic ratings at grid speed. This session moves DLR from planning concept to operational reality — examining data requirements, legacy system integration, and how AI-driven forecasting is improving the economics.

AMI 2.0 turns the meter from a billing endpoint into a real-time operational asset. But the real magic occurs when AMI 2.0 is paired with the power and reach of real-time DERMS. The result is a class of use cases that were previously impossible: sub-second load disaggregation, dynamic voltage optimization at the secondary, behind-the-meter DER visibility without separate gateways, and customer-facing programs that respond in real time. This session, co-presented by OATI and Landis+Gyr, walks through how unified DERMS and AMI 2.0 architectures are being deployed in production.

Customer-only roadmap session for OATIHub. Format: 30 minutes OATI presentation on near-term roadmap and platform priorities, followed by 15 minutes of structured customer input and discussion (list enhancements: messaging, content, etc.).