Please mark your calendars for our upcoming virtual workshop on Leveraging Behind-the-Meter Systems for Enhanced Demand Response taking place on Thursday, June 12 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET.Description:As the energy landscape becomes more decentralized and dynamic, utilities are increasingly turning to demand response (DR) programs to manage peak loads, ensure grid reliability, and support renewable integration. The proliferation of smart meters and behind-the-meter (BTM) technologies—including distributed energy resources (DERs), energy storage, and demand-side management tools—offers utilities powerful new mechanisms for enhancing system flexibility and customer engagement.Smart meters enable real-time data collection and analysis, allowing for more accurate forecasting, outage detection, and tailored DR strategies. Meanwhile, BTM systems empower customers to actively control their energy consumption and generation, presenting utilities with new opportunities for collaborative grid management. However, integrating these technologies effectively requires overcoming challenges such as interoperability, data security, customer participation, and alignment with regulatory frameworks and evolving rate structures.This workshop will bring together utility professionals from Canada and the USA to examine how smart meters and BTM systems can be incorporated into next-generation DR programs. Presenters will highlight how they are measuring return on investment (ROI) to assess the effectiveness and value of their initiatives, providing practical benchmarks for other utilities. In addition, each presentation will include a concise set of 3–5 key recommendations or lessons learned, aimed at supporting actionable insights and guiding peer utilities in the implementation or refinement of similar strategies.Presenters:Hydro One Networks: Giselle De GrandisHydro Quebec: Pier Luc DubéIdaho Power: Quentin Nesbitt and Chellie JensenSalt River Project: Laura Olson and Maria Mahar

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming webinar Powering Through Hurricane Helene: Utility Response & Resilience, scheduled June 18th from 12:00 to 1:30 pm ET. Hurricane Helene delivered a powerful test to the transmission and distribution (T&D) systems across the Southeastern United States, pushing utility resilience and coordination to the limit. In this session, hear firsthand from Duke Energy and Southern Company as they recount their on-the-ground experiences responding to the storm.Discover how both utilities prepared their grids ahead of the hurricane, the innovative strategies used to mitigate damage, and the rapid response efforts that restored power in the aftermath. From system hardening to coordinated restoration logistics, this session will dive into the real-world challenges and successes that defined their approach.Presenter(s): Jason Hollifield and Tyler Johnson, Duke Energy, Heather Lunsford, Southern Company

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming Wildfire Mitigation Plan Benchmarking Session scheduled for Wednesday, June 25th, from 3-5 pm ET. In this session, Wataynikaneyap Power will be sharing their responses to the Wildfire Mitigation Plan benchmarking framework using a structured set of questions aligned with California’s Utility Wildfire Mitigation Maturity Model. Session Objective: Facilitate a structured comparison of wildfire mitigation strategies across utilities to identify best practices and areas for improvement and receive structured feedback from industry peers. Through this initiative, utilities can benchmark their strategies, exchange best practices, and refine their wildfire mitigation efforts based on insights from others in the industry.

Long ago, in a galaxy far away... utilities understood how to handle long-range electric utility planning studies. Resource characteristics were well understood. Customer requirements could be forecasted with some degree of confidence. It was fairly straight-forward to produce a 20-year plan to meet projected demand and energy requirements. But that’s all changed now.The electric power sector is undergoing rapid transformation driven by decarbonization goals, electrification, policy shifts, and the adoption of emerging technologies and demand flexibility. With these and other changes impacting the industry, utilities must embrace a new approach to long-range planning studies that includes scenario analysis, risk-informed decision-making, and system resiliency assessment.Legacy planning approaches—especially siloed IRPs and isolated transmission/distribution plans—are not equipped to address system-wide resource and dynamic load interactions and uncertainties, especially when resources are sited and managed by customers. A strategic, integrated approach to planning - Integrated System Planning (ISP) - is needed to coordinate investments and operations across Generation, Transmission, and Distribution, (G/T/D) plus the customer domains.On June 25th, 1:00 - 2:30 PM Eastern Time, CEATI will host the first in a series of discussions exploring some of the fundamental questions that utilities should be considering as they prepare for this new, more complex energy future. These questions include:How are emerging technologies and customer behavior disrupting legacy planning approaches?What are the specific challenges faced by utilities that ISP can address?How is ISP different from integrated resource planning (IRP) or long-term transmission planning?What are the expected benefits and outcomes of ISP?The session, led by Gary Brinkworth, CEATI Technical Advisor will delve into these and other questions to help utilities find the balance between complexity and ease of execution, always keeping us mindful of customer needs, reliability and affordability. Gary previously worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) where he led multiple integrated resource planning studies and gained experience with advanced scenario analysis techniques and stakeholder engagement processes.