Third Supplemental Notice of Commissioner-Led Technical Conference: 2026 Reliability Technical Conference, October 21, 2026 (agenda; Panel 1 on integrating large loads)
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION
Reliability Technical Conference Docket No. AD26-8-000
THIRD SUPPLEMENTAL NOTICE OF COMMISSIONER-LED TECHNICAL CONFERENCE
(October 15, 2026)
As separately announced in the Notices of Technical Conference issued in this proceeding on June 11, 2026, and August 7, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) will convene its annual Commissioner-led Reliability Technical Conference, in the above-referenced proceeding, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, from 10:00 am to 2:40 pm Eastern Daylight Time, to discuss policy issues related to the reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System. The conference will be held in-person at the Commission’s headquarters at 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426 in the Kevin J. McIntyre Commission Meeting Room. The conference will be available to view online.
The purpose of this conference is to discuss policy issues related to the reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System. Attached to this Supplemental Notice is an agenda for the technical conference, which includes the technical conference program and expected panelists.
While the technical conference is not for the purpose of discussing any specific matters before the Commission, some discussions may involve issues raised in proceedings that are currently pending before the Commission. Any discussion on the merits of such proceedings will be curtailed. These proceedings include, but are not limited to:
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket Nos.
EL26-67-000
EL26-67-001
Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
Docket Nos.
EL26-70-000
EL26-70-001
Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
Docket No.
EL26-68-000
California Independent System Operator Corporation
Docket Nos.
EL26-71-000
EL26-71-001
ISO New England Inc.
Docket Nos.
EL26-72-000
EL26-72-001
New York Independent System Operator Inc.
Docket Nos.
EL26-69-000
EL26-69-001
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket No.
ER26-3515-000
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket No.
ER26-3380-000
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket No.
ER26-1556-000
Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
Docket No.
ER26-3552-000
American Transmission Company LLC
Docket No.
ER26-3265-000
Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
Docket No.
ER26-3650-000
Maryland Office of People’s Counsel
Docket No.
EL26-63-000
International Transmission Co.
Docket No.
EL26-58-000
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket Nos.
EL25-49-003
AD24-11-000
EL25-20-002
ER26-1479-001
ER26-1479-002
EL24-149-000
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC
Docket No.
ER26-2691-000
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC
Docket Nos.
EL25-20-000
EL25-20-001
PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.
Docket No. ER26-1088-000
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc.
Docket No. ER26-1929-000
American Transmission Company LLC
Docket No. ER26-3531-000
Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
Docket No. ER26-3720-000
Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
Docket No. ER26-2249-000
PacifiCorp
Docket No. P-2420-000
California Department of Water Resources
Docket No. P-2100-000
Turlock Irrigation District
Docket No. P-2299-000
Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto Irrigation District
Docket No. P-14581-000
Gridflex Energy, LLC
Docket No. P-14851-000
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Docket No. P-77-000
PacificCorp
Docket No. P-2082-000
PacificCorp
Docket No. P-2381-000
Idaho Power Company
Docket No. P-1971-000
Idaho Power Company
Docket No. P-2736-000
Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative
Docket No. P-5089-000
Ada County and Fulcrum, Inc.
Docket No. P-4881-000
Big Wood Canal Company
Docket No. P-3407-000
NorthWestern Company
Docket No. P-1869-000
FFP Project 101, LLC
Docket No. P-14861-000
City of Seattle
Docket No. P-553-000
Black Canyon Hydro, LLC
Docket No. P-14787-000
City of Pasadena Department of Water and Power
Docket Nos. P-1250-000
P-14836-000
American Transmission Company LLC
Docket No. EL26-83-000
Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative Inc.
Docket No. ER26-3576-000
Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
Docket No. ER27-25-000
The technical conference will be open to the public. Advance registration is not required, and there is no fee for attendance. Information will also be posted on the Calendar of Events on the Commission’s website, www.ferc.gov, prior to the event.
The technical conference will be transcribed and webcast. Transcripts will be available for a fee from Ace Reporting (202-347-3700). A link to the webcast of this event will be available in the Commission Calendar of Events at www.ferc.gov. The Commission provides technical support for the free webcasts. Please call 202-502-8680 or email customer@ferc.gov if you have any questions.
Commission technical conferences are accessible under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For accessibility accommodations, please send an email to accessibility@ferc.gov or call toll free 1-866-208-3372 (voice) or 202-208-8659 (TTY) or send a fax to 202-208-2106 with the required accommodations.
For more information about this conference, please contact Michael Gildea at Michael.Gildea@ferc.gov or (202) 502-8420 or Lodie White at Lodie.White@ferc.gov or (202) 502-8453.
Carlos D. Clay,
Deputy Secretary.
2026 Reliability Technical Conference
Docket No. AD26-8-000
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
10:00 am – 2:40 pm
10:00 am Chairman’s and Commissioners’ Opening Remarks
10:30 am Presentation on the State of Reliability
Jim Robb, President and Chief Executive Officer
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
10:40 am Panel 1: The State of Reliability in a Changing Energy Landscape - Operational Challenges of Integrating Large Loads in Evolving System Dynamics
The electric grid is undergoing rapid transformation driven by unprecedented load growth, the emergence of large, energy-intensive loads, and the accelerating deployment of inverter-based resources (IBRs). Data centers, Artificial Intelligence (AI) compute campuses, industrialization, and other large loads are developing at a pace that challenges traditional planning and operational frameworks. Meanwhile, the retirement of conventional baseload generators combined with the addition of solar, wind, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) are reshaping system dynamics, introducing new complexities and challenges related to reserve margins, inertia, protection systems, fuel supply, and disturbance response.
This panel may include a discussion of the following topics and questions:
How should entities model and plan for the rapid emergence of large, energy-intensive loads, such as data centers and AI compute campuses, whose scale, timing, and operational characteristics challenge traditional interconnection, transmission planning, and resource adequacy frameworks? What are some lessons learned from the integration of large loads (such as the necessity for validated dynamic load models, updated commissioning procedures, and mandatory disturbance monitoring at points of interconnection)?
ERCOT is proposing to require advanced grid support functions (e.g., fast-frequency response and synthetic inertia) for future BESS in response to reliability events and operational trends such as frequency excursions, voltage instability, and IBR-driven oscillations. Are these same issues present elsewhere, and should similar requirements be applied nationwide?
How should operators quantify and manage the reliability implications of declining system inertia in regions with rapid interconnection of large loads and where IBR penetration is accelerating and replacing conventional generation?
What are the primary cybersecurity and physical security risks associated with integrating large loads onto the grid? Which risks are unique to specific types of large loads (e.g., data centers, crypto mining, industrial loads)? How is industry addressing cybersecurity and physical security risks posed by large loads?
How do utilities account for the interaction of behind-the-meter gas-fired generators compared to front-of-meter gas-fueled power generators on the same pipeline in planning and operations?
Given the high load factor of data centers, what are utilities and RTOs/ISOs doing to ensure that resources used to meet capacity requirements have secure fuel sources to meet an increasingly flat load duration curve?
Speakers:
Jim Robb, President and Chief Executive Officer, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
Dr. Varun Sivaram, CEO and Founder, Emerald AI
Bobby Olsen, Associate General Manager and Chief Power System Executive, Salt River Project (representing APPA/LPPC)
Brian Starling, Director, Electric Transmission System Operations, Dominion Energy
Wayman Smith, Managing Director, Transmission Planning, American Electric Power (representing Edison Electric Institute)
David Owens, President and Energy Consultant, Da’VAS (representing ESPX Global)
Christopher Pilong, Sr. Director, Operations Planning, PJM Interconnection
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Panel 2: Reliability in the West Under Drought Conditions
The western United States is experiencing widespread drought, with over 65% of the region affected and significant water stress in the Colorado River Basin. As long-term drought continues to intensify, the flow of water to reservoirs such as Lake Powell and Lake Mead from key tributaries in the river basin has fallen, with reservoirs now reaching critical elevations due to drought-related drops in overall precipitation, less snowpack, and earlier snowmelt. These conditions threaten the availability of thousands of megawatts of electric generation and water supply reliability. Given the complex interactions of risks across multiple industries and jurisdictions, this panel will explore long-range electric grid reliability issues associated with extended drought, declining snowpack and evolving hydrological conditions, and how planners and operators can identify and manage risks to minimize grid reliability concerns.
This panel may include a discussion of the following topics and questions:
There are estimates that it will take 8-10 years of good precipitation (rain and snowpack) to return reservoirs to adequate levels to support the 4,500 MW of Colorado River hydropower production, and such precipitation levels are not expected. How are WECC and western utilities preparing to ensure reliability in the short-term and long-term for what appears to be a challenging future?
How should resource adequacy planning models change in response to potential long-term reductions in inflows, minimum power pool constraints, and declining reservoir elevations that make hydropower an uncertain resource rather than a predictable seasonal asset? How have retirements of conventional generation combined with the addition of large loads affected this circumstance?
What is the most significant risk in reliability planning frameworks for the West (e.g., hydrological modeling, crosssector coordination, load forecasting, or extremeevent assumptions) that could undermine near- and long-term reliability in the Western Interconnection? How significant is this risk and how can it best be mitigated?
What structure is needed to enable coordinated decision making by water users and water rights holders (e.g., water managers, tribal nations, municipal utilities, agricultural users, and large industrial loads), who may not regularly interact and who would need to coordinate with grid operators to determine priority for health, safety and economic needs? How are electric system operators aligning their operational and market planning cycles with water management and allocation decisions by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and state water authorities’ timelines for water releases, allocations, etc. that directly affect hydropower output?
How should planners better integrate rapidly shifting hydrological forecasts[fn:1] into multiyear transmission, resource adequacy, and infrastructure planning processes, which traditionally assume stable water conditions?
How should WECC entities prepare for compounding reliability stress when hydropower shortages align with extreme heat, availability limitations for conventional generation resources due to cooling shortages, the retirement of conventional generation, reduced natural gas supplies due to limited freshwater for Gulf Coast refineries, and rapidly growing loads in the Southwest, creating simultaneous supply and demand pressures? Are there datasets that operators lack today that would improve reliability operations and planning in the Colorado River Basin (e.g., real time tributary inflow telemetry, coordinated reservoir operations data, or cross-sector demand projections)?
Speakers:
Commissioner Ann Rendahl, Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, and President, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)
Jeff Droubay, President and CEO, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
Nathalie Voisin, Chief Scientist, Regional Water-Energy Dynamics, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Chris Colson, Senior Vice President and Infrastructure Asset Management and Planning Manager, Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)
Michael Eugenis, Director, Resource Planning, Arizona Public Service
Cody Allred, Water Resource and Fuel Quality Manager, PacifiCorp (representing National Hydropower Association)
2:30 pm Closing Remarks
2:40 pm End of Technical Conference
Footnotes
[fn:1] Hydrological forecasts are predictions of future watercycle conditions such as river flows, reservoir inflows, snowpack levels, soil moisture, and runoff based on climate data, precipitation patterns, temperature trends, and watershed modeling.
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