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On May 13, NERC, NextEra, Enel, E.ON, Enera Power, Integ, HSI, and the LDES Council sat down to answer one question: what does it take to keep the grid reliable when data centers, AI loads, and variable generation are outrunning the standards?
The threads were consistent. Compressed timelines, broken data architecture, real-time as the new compliance bar. Here's the recap.
Watch the clips, review the discussion, or read below for key takeaways.
Presented By
First, meet our experts:
John Cheney, CEO & Co-Founder @ Enera Power Group
Erin Westberg, Manager of Cost & Growth @ NEXTera
Eljar Akhgarnusch, Program Director @ E.ON
Anna J Siefken, Director of Policy & Markets @ LDES
Jamie Calderon, Director of Standards Development @ NERC
Amit Patel, Managing Partner @ Integ Consulting
Rashed Khan, Managing Partner @ Integ Consulting
Dinesh Soundararajan, Innovation Manager @ ENEL
Terry Bilke, Senior NERC Compliance Consultant @ HSI
Robert Schlegel, Head of Quality Assurance @ Mitnetz Strom
Moderated by @Adam Shaw, CMO — Integ Consulting, Founder — Grid Innovation Hub
Before you get into the summary…
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NERC's Race Against AI Load
At the Generator Reliability Summit, NERC's Director of Standards Development Jamie Calderon laid out how the reliability framework is racing to catch up with data centers and AI load. Highlights:
A compressed timeline. NERC has shrunk its usually years-long standards process into roughly 12 months; running registration, drafting, and technical guidance in parallel.
May 4 Level 3 alert. Near-term requirements now cover modeling, commissioning, communications, and protection and control for computational large loads.
Broader risks on the radar. Gas-electric coordination, wildfire resiliency, cloud and AI integration, and supply chain exposure.
An open process. Industry writes the standards. Utilities, tech vendors, data center operators, and financiers all need a seat at the table.
The stakes. Standards drafted this year will shape generator reliability for years to come.
Watch the full keynote →
Executive Q&A with John Cheney - How Utilities & Executives Need To Be Thinking About Reliability In An AI-Dominated World
John Cheney, CEO of Enera Power Group, sat down with Adam Shaw for a builder's-eye view of what's actually happening on the grid and what's about to break for everyone who isn't paying attention. Highlights:
The 30% cushion is gone. Operators used to rely on overcapacity to absorb mistakes. With data centers stacking up, that buffer is no longer there.
ERCOT hit reset. A "batch zero" process means every developer must resubmit PSSE plans by July 15 and meet the new NOGRR / IEEE 2800 stability standards; 230 exemption requests were rejected.
Virginia almost melted down. 40 data centers tripped offline in a single second; a small team of humans saved the eastern grid.
From 15 minutes to milliseconds. Real-time, on-site compliance is the new bar. Commissioning won't happen without it.
The advice. Get into ERCOT's committees, build the controller now, and don't wait for the standard to come to you.
Watch the full session →
Tech Deep Dive with Amit Patel - Automating Renewable & Fossil Reliability Performance with Integ
Amit Patel, Managing Director of Integ, and Rashed showed the summit how top generators are automating compliance and using AI to compress months of analytics work into minutes. Highlights:
The scale is non-negotiable. A single solar plant produces over 1 billion PI/SCADA data points per year. Manual GADS workflows miss ~20% of events.
The principle. Don't run AI in production. Use AI to write software, validate it, then operationalize it. At that point it's not AI anymore, it's code.
What's coming. PRC 28/29/30 will push data volumes from millions to billions of rows per week.
The demo. Live AI-generated cost code analysis and solar metrics dashboards, built in minutes against live data, what-if scenarios included.
The ROI. One client improved EAF/EFOR in small increments and pulled $2.3M out of the capacity market.
Watch the full session →
Want Amit Patel from Integ to walk you through this for your fleet?
A 30-min review of your current GADS workflow, then a 60-min tailored demo. AirPods Pro on us for your time!
Expert Panel - Innovating Compliance & Reliability Operations For Large Load Growth
NextEra's Erin Westberg, HSI's Terry Bilke, LDES Council's Anna Siefken, and Integ's Amit Patel, broke down what it actually takes to keep the grid reliable as variable load and variable generation collide at seconds-level timescales. Highlights:
Load and generation are "jacking for position." Operators are now building large loads as well as large generation, locale by locale.
Safety, reliability, compliance, business. Terry's framework: identify the risks in each, give every risk an owner, and prove what you're doing.
LDES is ready. The market isn't. Eight-hour-plus storage is commercially available, but ELCC methodologies and capacity market constructs in CAISO, PJM, and ERCOT haven't caught up. Project costs are projected to drop up to 47% by 2030.
Evidence collection breaks first. Throwing headcount at compliance doesn't scale, data architecture and active compliance do.
The 2026 ask. Stop siloing. Stop treating long-duration storage as just another battery. Stop thinking your problems are unique.
Watch the full panel →
Expert Panel - Innovating Technology on The Grid
Eljar Akhgarnusch from E.ON moderated a cross-border panel with John Cheney (Enera Power Group), Dinesh Soundararajan (Enel Group), and Robert Schlegel (Mitnetz Strom) on what hypergrowth is actually doing to the grid and what would have to change for utilities to keep up. Highlights:
Different grids, same problem. EVs, heat pumps, data centers, and storage are pulling stability apart in Germany, the US, and everywhere Enel operates across 29 countries.
CIM data is walled off in the US. Other countries, including Mexico publish it openly. AI and planning can't help if the data is locked.
The capital structure is broken. CapEx-reward models punish innovation. Meanwhile Amazon's $8B Anthropic stake turned into $80B in a year. Grid investment can't compete.
"Connect first, reinforce later" is dead. The future is data-driven planning, digital substations, and real-time visibility down to the LV grid.
All three agreed on the moonshot. Real-time, end-to-end measurement and control of a digital grid. System of systems, no surprises.
Watch the full panel →
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Integ’s platform is used by utilities, IPPs, and ISOs to manage generating assets, automate GADS & performance, and reduce the workload of NERC compliance by 90%+.
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