Electricity demand growth is reshaping power markets, development pipelines and long-term planning assumptions across the industry. This topic examines how data centers, industrial expansion, electrification, market pricing, capacity signals and customer behavior are changing dispatch strategies, resource adequacy decisions, investment priorities and commercial risk. For generation stakeholders, understanding load growth is now central to building and operating the right portfolio.

Markets & Load Growth Educational Opportunities

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8:30 AM
  1. Grand Ballroom
    90 mins
    All badge holders are eligible to attend. Join us as we kick off POWERGEN 2027 with our keynote sponsor, ANA. Following the opening, we’ll transition into a panel discussion exploring Supply, Demand a …
10:15 AM
  1. 250D
    50 mins
    ERCOT's interconnection process operates differently from the rest of the country. Under the connect-and-manage framework, each project is studied on its own merits under Planning Guide Section 5, rat …
  2. 250F
    50 mins
    Data center energy campus projects are moving forward before load certainty, commercial terms, and interconnection outcomes are fully resolved. Developers and their partners are committing capital for …
11:15 AM
  1. 250E
    50 mins
    As load profiles grow more complex and grid conditions more dynamic, the commercial models that utilities and IPPs have relied on are under pressure. This session examines how Constellation's Modern S …
  2. 250A
    50 mins
    The proliferation of distributed batteries, behind-the-meter assets and aggregated virtual power plants is reshaping how grid operators think about flexibility. This series of presentations covers ope …
  3. 251B
    50 mins
    With new combined-cycle lead times stretching to 2029 and beyond, the strategic value of optimizing existing gas turbine assets has never been more direct. This session presents an updated fleet-wide …
  4. 250D
    50 mins
    Gas turbine order books are full into the next decade, interconnection queues are lengthening, and data center load growth is compressing the timeline between resource planning decisions and capacity …
  5. Exhibit Hall - Data Center & New Demand Zone Booth #5004
    50 mins
    Data centers are arriving on utility interconnection queues faster than the grid was designed to absorb them, and the default responses, behind-the-meter isolation or large inflexible load requests, a …
10:15 AM
  1. Exhibit Hall - Thermal & Nuclear Zone Booth #1238
    50 mins
    Not all megawatts are equal. For combustion turbine peaking units, location is the primary driver of economic performance, and operational flexibility determines how much of that location advantage is …
11:15 AM
  1. 250D
    50 mins
    Rapid load growth from data centers and industrial expansion is exposing the seams between transmission planning, distribution coordination, control-room operations and the analytics teams that sit be …
  2. Exhibit Hall - Center Stage Booth #3535
    50 mins
    They didn't plan it this way. But a group of executives who once walked the same halls at PacifiCorp went on to lead across the full spectrum of the power industry, from federal power administration a …
1:30 PM
  1. 250C
    50 mins
    Hyperscale data center load is arriving on timelines that conventional interconnection and transmission development cannot match. The structural mismatch between when capacity is needed and when it ca …
  2. 250F
    50 mins
    Gas turbine lead times stretching to 2029 and beyond have forced a structural change in how thermal power projects are executed. Owners and developers are now procuring long-lead powertrain equipment …
  3. Exhibit Hall - Data Center & New Demand Zone Booth #5004
    50 mins
    Load growth from data centers and AI infrastructure is compressing the timeline between resource planning decisions and the capacity the grid actually needs. For generation owner-operators managing ex …
  4. 250B
    50 mins
    Gas turbine frame orders now carry delivery dates extending to 2029 and beyond. Large power transformer lead times have lengthened materially. EPC labor is being competed for across simultaneous power …
2:30 PM
  1. 250B
    50 mins
    Gigawatt-scale AI campuses need more than electricity. They need transmission access, cooling water, fuel infrastructure, industrial permitting capacity and operational resilience, and they need all o …
  2. 251A
    50 mins
    As hyperscalers buy compute from neo-cloud and colocation providers rather than building their own facilities, the electricity behind that compute shifts from the buyer's Scope 2 into their Scope 3, a …
  3. Exhibit Hall - Data Center & New Demand Zone Booth #5004
    50 mins
    Hyperscale data centers need power on 12 to 24-month timelines. Interconnection queues run five years or longer. Meanwhile, oil and gas producers across North America are managing stranded gas, flarin …
  4. Exhibit Hall - Center Stage Booth #3535
    50 mins
    The electrical power system is stressed by recent and expected load growth due to computational loads/inverter-based loads (IBL) (e.g., large data center growth) and electrification of transportation, …
8:00 AM
  1. Exhibit Hall - Center Stage Booth #3535
    50 mins
    All badge holders are eligible to attend. U.S. electricity demand is rising at a pace the sector has not seen in decades, and the planning assumptions that governed resource adequacy decisions five ye …
9:30 AM
  1. Exhibit Hall - Center Stage Booth #3535
    50 mins
    Data center power strategies do not develop in a vacuum. Utilities are being asked to serve extremely large loads on accelerated timelines while managing reserve margins, transmission constraints, int …
10:30 AM
  1. Exhibit Hall - Data Center & New Demand Zone Booth #5004
    50 mins
    AI is driving the largest load growth the grid has seen in decades, and data centers are often cast as the problem. This panel argues that they can also be part of the solution. Panelists will discuss …
  2. 250E
    50 mins
    Permitting, financing and engineering are not sufficient to deliver a major generation project if stakeholder opposition can halt regulatory momentum or disrupt construction timelines. This session ex …
11:30 AM
  1. 250F
    50 mins
    Canada's provincial Call for Power processes, the primary mechanism through which utilities contract new renewable generation, operate differently from U.S. RFP and PPA structures in ways that meaning …
  2. Exhibit Hall - Data Center & New Demand Zone Booth #5004
    50 mins
    Interconnection queues in many regions now run five to eight years. Data center campuses are arriving in 50 to 300 MW blocks on 12 to 24 month timelines. The mismatch is a system planning problem that …

Other Markets & Load Growth News

Visit Our Official Media Partner, Factor This Power Engineering, for more Markets & Load Growth  News

Gas turbines and batteries are cashing in as AI data centers can’t wait for the grid

Grid delays and surging AI demand are fueling a behind-the-meter power boom as data centers turn to gas turbines, natural gas engines and battery storage to bring projects online faster.
November 04, 2026

Alliant Energy secures $5.1B federal loan package for Iowa, Wisconsin natural gas, storage projects

Alliant Energy secured $5.1 billion in federal loans to expand natural gas generation and energy storage in Iowa and Wisconsin, potentially saving customers $1.2 billion.
November 02, 2026

Xcel Energy eyes the largest battery portfolio in the Upper Midwest

Xcel Energy announced battery units at its Blue Lake site in Minnesota, aiming for the largest battery portfolio in the Upper Midwest by 2027.
October 28, 2026

Battery storage failure rates plunge 98% as global deployment soars

According to EPRI's white paper, Risk Factors and Failure Statistics of Lithium-Ion BESS, the annual failure rate for lithium-ion BESS plunged 98% between 2018 and 2025, even as global deployment skyrocketed.
October 23, 2026

 

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