SEPA’s Energy Evolution Summit: Tackling Three Key Challenges to an Affordable, Resilient, Clean Energy System for All

Electric companies and their partners are navigating an increasingly complex environment. Customer expectations are evolving, demand is growing, electrification is accelerating, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. The confluence of these drivers – each one of which is significant on its own – influences how utilities are planning, operating, and investing in the energy system, and this requires new strategies, bold thinking, and cross-industry collaboration. The Energy Evolution Summit (EES) offers an opportunity for executive energy leaders to address these challenges head on.

EES is a unique platform designed to facilitate candid discussion among utility leaders, policymakers, and other key stakeholders to gather intelligence, brainstorm solutions, and facilitate collaborative problem-solving.

The dialogue held at EES will cover key cross-cutting issues, all tied to the resilience of the electric distribution system, demand growth, and future planning for the gas and electric distribution systems.

SEPA and its members and other key stakeholders will continue the dialogue after EES, incorporating identified needs and new insights into our work for the rest of 2025 and beyond.

EES Focuses on Three Key Challenges

1. Demand Growth: Strategies for Meeting Demand Growth Reliably 

Many utilities are experiencing unprecedented load growth after decades of nearly flat and sometimes declining demand for electricity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. electricity consumption grew by 2% in 2024 and is expected to continue growing at that rate in 2025 and 2026, marking the first three years of consecutive growth in electricity demand since 2005–07.

This growing demand for electricity is largely driven by the proliferation of manufacturing and data centers needed to support rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). With the rise of AI and large-scale cloud computing (think internet searches and ChatGPT), the power required for a new data center commonly exceeds 100 MW. One of the many challenges for utilities is balancing requests to interconnect and service these new, energy-intensive industrial customers while continuing to maintain affordable rates for all.

At EES, we will explore the challenges and opportunities of meeting demand growth by addressing key questions, including:

• How can utilities expedite the interconnection of new clean generation options while maintaining reliability and managing costs?
• What innovative tariff designs are being implemented to protect retail customers from rate increases and encourage new clean generation to meet demand growth?

• How are utilities leveraging load flexibility and demand management to integrate new, large-scale loads to minimize major infrastructure upgrades?

Additional Reading:

• Innovative Utility Tariffs Pave the Way for Flexible, Carbon-Free Data Centers (SEPA)
• How “Power Couples” Can Help the United States Win the Global AI Race (RMI)
• 5 Ways Utilities Are Balancing Investment, Load Growth, and Customer Priorities (Burns and Mac)

2. Distribution System Resilience: Investing for the Future, Ensuring Safety and Reliability Now

Grid planning is tailored to each utility’s unique challenges, resources, and commitment to providing affordable, reliable power to their customers.

Many utilities across the U.S. are broadening their approach to distribution system planning to address growing customer demand and policy changes, focusing on equity, sustainability, and resilience.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton’s catastrophic flooding and widespread power outage impacts in Florida and the Carolinas have again highlighted the need for utilities to consider resilience during grid planning to better withstand outages, return service more quickly after disasters, and adapt to changing energy demands.

Some utilities are starting to look at hazard risk and grid vulnerability assessments as part of their annual distribution system plans. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), as of December 2024, utilities in 14 states are now required to file resilience plans by state regulators, with some states in Florida and Texas already seeing resilience plan proposals and budgets in the last couple of months.

Others are evolving their planning practices to consider traditional grid investments alongside distributed energy resources (DERs) to build flexibility, capacity, reliability, and resilience. Utilities in Maryland, under recent state regulations, are now required to “expand on traditional methods to meet modern demands” with a focus on “detailed load forecasting,” “collaboration with gas companies,” and “strategic placement of DERs.”

At EES, we will explore the challenges and opportunities of incorporating resilience and equity into distribution system planning by addressing key questions, including:

• How are utilities measuring resilience success, and what metrics are proving most effective?
• What are the financial, regulatory, and policy barriers facing utilities that can delay necessary resilience investments?
• How can utilities take a holistic approach to climate adaptation that focuses on ensuring all customers benefit from investments and that the costs of these are manageable?

Additional Reading:

• Reimagining Resilience: A Framework for Integrating Customer Sited and Grid Scale DERs (SEPA)
• Resilience Planning Playbook for Electric Cooperative Utilities and Case Studies (SEPA and NRECA)
• Resilience Planning Playbook for States and Utilities (SEPA)
• Hot Springs Microgrid Case Study (SEPA and Duke Energy, coming soon)
• Grid Resilience Plans: State Requirements, Utility Practices, and Utility Plan Template (LBNL)

3. A Net-Zero Energy Delivery System: Coordinating Gas and Electric Distribution Planning

Traditionally, gas and electric distribution system planning have operated separately, with distinct teams, tools, and minimal coordination on customer demand-side and distribution-focused programs.

In 2024, Washington became the first state to require that combination utilities incorporate and consider critical interactions between their gas and electric distribution systems in the planning processes used to guide investment in both systems and accomplish climate goals.

While no other jurisdiction has taken this step toward fully integrated energy system planning for combination utilities, several others are considering how to manage the transition to a more electrified economy, focusing on how to maintain affordability and reliability for both electricity and natural gas customers.

At EES, we will explore the current and future challenges and opportunities of coordinating the gas and electric delivery systems by addressing key questions, including:

• How can utilities coordinate gas and electric system planning to optimize emissions reductions, minimize costs, and maintain system reliability?
• What new data and tools are needed to support integrated system planning and decision-making?
• How can utilities build stakeholder support for coordinated planning, especially in regions with diverse regulatory environments and customer needs?

Additional Reading:

• Insight Brief: Thermal Energy Networks for Utility Carbon Reduction (SEPA)
• Integrated Distribution Planning: A Framework for the Future (SEPA)
• Opportunities for Integrated Electric & Gas Planning (LBNL)
• A Roadmap for Integrated System Planning (E3)

Join the Conversation at EES

At EES, you will find unique engagement opportunities to:

• Connect with peer utility and industry leaders to have open and honest conversations directed at problem-solving and innovation.
• Participate in Chatham House Rules discussions – candid, solution-oriented discussions on pressing industry challenges.
• Help shape actionable takeaways.
• Build connections and drive innovation with industry peers and leaders.

Register today to be a part of the conversation.

The dialogue from EES will extend beyond the event, shaping SEPA’s educational content for members, policymakers, regulators, and partners. Opportunities for collaboration will continue year-round through SEPA’s member working groups, online learning platforms, and in-person events. The insights and solutions shared at EES will help accelerate utility innovation, inform policy decisions, and support the broader clean energy transition.