Grid of the Future: Market Drivers, Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

• Building, transportation, heating and industrial electrification trends

• Accommodating data center and other large load growth

• Emerging smart grid technologies and tools for the future network

• Regulatory and policy issues: Identifying and implementing required process reforms
  

Ensuring Grid Reliability & System Resilience

• Approaches to reducing outage frequency/duration

• Grid-hardening: Strategies for meeting climate-related impacts

• Advanced fault detection, isolation, and service restoration

• Transmission resilience and substation modernization
  

Transmission and Distribution Network Modernization

• ADMS deployment experiences and integration with DERMS

• Distribution automation architectures

• Transforming transmission: Leveraging grid-enhancing technologies

• Legacy network Interoperability and integration challenges

DER, Inverter-Based Resources & Load Flexibility

• Technical impacts of high-penetration DERs

• Grid-forming inverter capabilities and operational considerations

• Virtual power plants (VPP) in the modernized grid

• Strategies for successful transportation electrification and managed charging
  

Microgrids & Local Resilience Systems

• Microgrid control schemes, islanding transitions, and stability considerations

• Protection coordination in microgrid and DER-dense environments

• Industrial, campus, and community microgrid operational case studies
  

Energy Storage Integration

• Storage siting, sizing, and grid support functions

• Modeling and forecasting for storage operations

• Storage protection, fire-safety standards, and code compliance

• Utility-scale energy storage case studies: Lessons to date
  

Cybersecurity and OT System Modernization

• SCADA modernization, secure communications, and protocol hardening

• NERC CIP compliance strategies for evolving OT/IT boundaries

• Zero-trust architectures for operational networks

• Incident response frameworks for grid-connected infrastructure
  

Data, Digitalization & Advanced Analytics

• Distribution and transmission digital twin architectures

• Predictive analytics for asset management and grid performance

• AMI 2.0 data utilization and analytics workflows