Agenda

Once you’ve checked into your hotel room, take the elevator up to the Rally’s third floor. We’ll enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and beverages on their rooftop deck complete with stunning views of Coors Field. Brush up on your energy facts because we’re debuting Megawatt Maniacs trivia with custom prizes.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom & Terrace

Get oriented to our conference space and learn more about how we’ll be spending our time over the next few days.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom

Luis D’Acosta: CEO of Uplight

The trends are undeniable: our energy ecosystem is becoming more distributed and more decarbonized. This, combined with the exponential increase in electric load expected over the next five years, necessitates a new approach to deliver reliable, resilient, and affordable power. In this session, Uplight’s CEO, Luis D’Acosta, will share perspectives on how utilities can braid together the full spectrum of demand-side resources into an integrated demand stack strategy to deliver flexible capacity that serves both customer needs and modern grid requirements.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom

Jesse Demmel: CTO at Uplight

Technology is foundational to our efforts to not only decarbonize but also improve grid reliability. The most effective technologies are built on three core tenants: interoperability, extensibility, and scalability. In this session, Uplight’s Technology leadership team will share perspectives on these three critical lenses and offer examples of how Uplight’s platform leverages each to enable our utility clients and ecosystem partners to drive customer-centric load flexibility at scale, maximizing system and network value.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom

Emily Rich: Senior Product Marketing Manager at Uplight

Marty Marks: Market Specialist – DSM at Alabama Power

Nicole Santos: Program Support Manager at PSE&G NJ

Faith Muriithi: Program Support Manager at PSE&G NJ

Energy providers need to boost program enrollment, capturing customer attention in a world of distractions. To boost program enrollment and participation, energy providers need to capture their customers’ attention amidst a world of distractions. This session reveals proven strategies for increasing participation in load flexibility and demand-side programs by leveraging data-driven customer segmentation, optimizing outreach channels, and crafting compelling messaging that resonates with different customer groups. Attendees will learn how other utilities have successfully motivated various customer segments to take meaningful action.

Location: Baseline Ballroom A/West

Gisela Glandt: VP of Partnerships and Business Development at Uplight

Kevin Brannan: Senior Manager, Distributed Energy Resources Programs at Evergy

Tamara Dzubay: Senior Director, Energy at ecobee

Kari Gehrke: Manager, Customer Solutions at Alliant

Brittainy Pond: Product Development Manager at Puget Sound Energy

Today’s grid faces not just isolated peak demand events, but increasingly frequent and prolonged peaks as well as localized network constraints. Many energy providers have existing demand response programs, but are looking to optimize and expand these to meet evolving load growth challenges. In this session, we’ll explore how utilities are adapting by diversifying and scaling their approach across different services, devices, and dispatch strategies while at the same time deepening customer relationships. We’ll examine how various asset types – from behavioral demand response and smart thermostats to electric vehicles and batteries – each serve distinct roles in load management.

Location: Baseline Ballroom B/East

Emily Rich: Senior Product Marketing Manager at Uplight

Matt McRitchie: Senior Product Marketing Manager at GridX

Jason McGrade: Deputy Director at SECC

Time-varying rates (TVR) offer a powerful pathway to load flexibility, electrification adoption, and customer bill management, yet educating and recruiting customers onto these rates remains a big hurdle. This session explores how utilities leverage personalized rate analytics and ‘what-if’ scenarios to help customers confidently select optimal rate plans. Learn how ongoing rate coaching transforms initial enrollment into sustained behavioral changes, delivering meaningful load shifts while empowering customers to save through informed energy choices.

Location: Baseline Ballroom A/West

David Rodriguez: Director, Industry Solutions at Uplight

Eric Gupta: Principal Consultant at Black and Veatch

Brandon Horne: Business Development Manager, ADMS & DERMS at Schneider Electric

Santosh Veda: Manager- Grid Solutions at Dominion Virginia Power

Dave Sheehan: Sr. Director, Industry Solutions at Uplight

Load growth and increased deployment of customer-sited DERs are increasing the need for flexibility in the network. Utilities are managing an expanding number of devices, use cases, and dispatch strategies in their DR and VPP programs. Additionally, these utilities are starting to leverage integrated grid-edge DERMS platforms to unify diverse programs and asset portfolios and enable sophisticated grouping through multi-asset dispatch and optimization. In this session, we’ll explore how utilities are deploying integrated DERMS to achieve more effective peak shaving and distribution-level grid services by coordinating across previously siloed programs and systems, while simplifying operations and unlocking new value streams from distributed energy resources.

Location: Baseline Ballroom B/East

Sam Hartnett: Senior Product Marketing Manager at Uplight

Kim Winslow: Sr. Director, Energy Solutions at Evergy

Stephanie Bieler: Senior Associate at RMI

Brian Kooiman: Principal at The Ad Hoc Group

Load growth is accelerating faster than we can keep up. While the surge in electrification, distributed energy resources, and data centers challenges the traditional supply-side approach, it also creates new opportunities. The Demand Stack framework offers a strategic solution by seamlessly integrating energy efficiency, dynamic pricing, and demand response to strengthen grid reliability while deepening customer engagement. This session will reveal how components of a Demand Stack fit together to deliver load shaping, shifting, and shimmying. Attendees will gain practical insights into implementing their own Demand Stack, including proven strategies for program design, customer experience, and operational optimization.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom

Jesse Ryan: Product Manager II at Uplight

Daniel Thiessen: Director, Software Engineering at Uplight

Learning happens when we get creative and challenge assumptions. Partnering with utilities, Uplight has developed an approach quickly learn what helps maximize load flexibility customer enrollment and participation and what hinders it. Hear about how we conduct customer research, test out some of your own ideas in a workshop format, and most importantly, learn how to bring this approach back to your own organization.

Location: Baseline Ballroom A/West

Neil Veilleux: VP, Market Development and Regulatory Innovation at Uplight

Josh Brown: Product Lead, Energy Transition Solutions at National Grid

Paul Grod: President & CEO at Rodan Energy Solutions

Dr. Andrea Nuesser: Grid Modernization Leader at Capgemini

Kelsey Devine: Manager, Industry Solutions at Uplight

As electric utilities face mounting challenges from rapid load growth, advanced technology adoption, and increasing demand for flexible energy solutions, many utilities are adapting and exploring the path to becoming Distribution System Operators (DSOs). This session equips utility and regulatory leaders with actionable strategies to move towards a DSO including leveraging AMI for enhanced data accuracy and Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) for intelligent optimization and implementing DERMS and load flexibility programs that integrate distributed resources while reducing grid strain. Attendees will gain expert insights into navigating regulatory and pricing models that address local constraints, along with best practices for wholesale market coordination that can transform traditional utilities into future-ready DSOs.

Location: Baseline Ballroom B/East

Michael Sobota: VP, Software Engineering at Uplight

Seth Brown: Product Manager, EIX at Southern Company

Drew Triplett: Solutions Architect, Energy and Utilities at Databricks

Whitney Betlej: VP, Product at Uplight

Discover approaches for maximizing program goals and outcomes through your information and data strategy, from initial concept through deployment and beyond. Learn how to effectively communicate program needs, navigate the changing data and cloud landscape, and improve efficiency, security, and flexibility. We’ll discuss how to foster collaborative partnerships that enable smooth implementations while meeting both program and IT requirements.

Location: Clubhouse Boardroom

Vidhya Ganesan: Sr. Product Designer at Uplight

Doug Middleton: Utility and Virtual Power Plant Business Development at Tesla

While utilities are increasingly incorporating batteries into their demand response and VPP programs, these assets present unique capabilities and opportunities but come with their own set of considerations as it concerns cost, value and customer experience. Drawing from original Uplight research, this session explores battery program preferences and participation patterns across income segments, revealing key insights that can inform more effective customer engagement strategies. Attendees will learn practical steps for successfully introducing batteries into their DR programs, including proven approaches for ensuring strong customer satisfaction and participation rates.

Location: Baseline Ballroom A/West

Kahryn Riley: Senior Market Development Manager at Uplight

Tom Plant: Commissioner at Colorado PUC

Ryan Hledick: Principal at Brattle Group

Wendell Concina: Manager of Demand Response & Dynamic Pricing at ComEd

Gisela Glant: VP, Partnerships and Business Development at Uplight

VPP can also be spelled “win-win-win.” This increasingly popular solution enables demand flexibility to benefit customers, utilities and the grid. It offers unique opportunities for economic benefits and ecosystem partnerships, but can be stifled by regulatory, technology and customer enrollment barriers. Join us to learn more about the bright spots and road blocks on the road to large-scale deployment.

Location: Baseline Ballroom B/East

Laura Fletcher: Director, Product at Uplight

Tyson Brown: Director, VPP Delivery at Renew Home

Steven Mannhard: Head of Sales and Utility Partnerships at Optiwatt

Customers, like all of us, spend lot of time online. But – much as we’d like to wish otherwise – most of that time isn’t on their utility’s program websites. How can we engage customers in energy efficiency and load flexibility programs by extending that content into the digital channels where customers already are? Join us for a hands-on session exploring how the extensibility of Uplight’s capabilities and insights, from APIs to widgets to third-party partnerships, enable you to maximize available channels and drive the program participation you need.

Location: Clubhouse Boardroom

Melissa Stockwell, a former U.S. army officer, a mother, a veteran, and a three-time Paralympian will tell her story, ‘The Power of Choice’. Her moving narrative is a testament to overcoming adversity, demonstrating perseverance, and the transformative power of personal choice—providing professional and personal inspiration for attendees leading the energy transition.

Location: Wynkoop Ballroom

Experience more in the Mile High City with an evening event at the historic Union Station’s Terminal Bar. Enjoy Colorado craft beverages and local cuisine amid turn-of-the-century restored decor.

Location: Terminal Bar, Denver Union Square Station