There was something fitting about talking grid resilience and high-stakes decision-making in San Diego. At DTECH 2026, the mood wasn’t experimental. It was operational. Utilities weren’t debating whether change was coming. They were focused on how to stay ahead of it without losing control. The conversations felt less like a tech expo and more like a Top Gun briefing: real scenarios, real consequences, and no appetite for guesswork.
Below are the takeaways we heard most often and why they matter now.
1. AI is changing how utilities operationalize resilience
AI wasn’t new at DTECH, but confidence around it had shifted. Utilities are no longer asking whether AI belongs in operations. They’re asking how quickly they can operationalize it. Storm response stood out as a clear example, showing how teams are applying AI to improve speed and reliability when it matters most.
That shift became apparent in the days preceding DTECH through public remarks from Chris Womack, CEO of Southern Company. He described how advanced models helped his organization anticipate the impacts of Winter Storm Fern more accurately than traditional approaches. The implication was powerful: better forecasts did more than improve situational awareness. They changed decisions.
We heard repeatedly that Storm Outage Insight are becoming decision tools, not just analytics outputs. Utilities are using them to:
- Pre-position crews days earlier with greater confidence
- Prioritize vegetation and asset risk before weather hits
- Reduce over-mobilization while improving reliability outcomes
The conversation is moving beyond prediction accuracy toward business value. That value shows up in avoided outages, safer operations, and faster restoration.
The takeaway: Utilities that translate probabilistic forecasts into actionable plans are creating a real operational advantage.
2. AMI 2.0 is about flexibility, not just meters
If AMI 1.0 was about deployment, AMI 2.0 is about flexibility. At DTECH, second-generation AMI was everywhere, not as a single technology upgrade but as a broader AMI Planning through Implementation.
Utilities talked about AMI 2.0 as an enabler for future needs:
- Faster outage detection and verification
- Support for DERs, EVs, and dynamic rates
- Higher-resolution data for planning and operations
- Communications networks that won’t box utilities in for the next 15 years
What feels different this time is the level of caution. Many utilities shared lessons from first-generation rollouts and now prioritize modularity, cybersecurity, and long-term flexibility over feature checklists. Leaders are framing AMI 2.0 decisions less as IT projects and more as foundational grid investments.
The takeaway: AMI is no longer just a metering discussion. It’s a data strategy, a customer strategy, and a grid strategy rolled into one.
3. Data centers are redefining the interconnection challenge
Interconnection was one of the most urgent topics at DTECH, driven largely by rapid data center growth. Hyperscale and AI-driven loads are arriving faster, at larger scale, and in more concentrated areas than traditional planning processes were designed to handle — often requiring hundreds of megawatts on aggressive timelines.
Utilities shared how data center interconnection is straining existing workflows. Developers need early certainty on capacity, upgrade costs, and timelines, often before studies are complete. This creates pressure across planning, engineering, and customer teams to commit amid uncertainty.
Several challenges surfaced repeatedly:
- Disconnected data across planning, interconnection, and operations
- Study timelines misaligned with data center site selection decisions
- Heightened risk when multiple large projects compete for the same infrastructure
The takeaway: Data centers have turned Interconnection & Planning Studies for Utilities into a strategic constraint. Speed to power is now a deciding factor, and utilities must balance economic development with reliability and risk. The conversation is shifting toward better models, integrated data, and clearer decision frameworks that enable utilities to say “yes,” “not yet,” or “not here” with confidence.
What this means going forward
Taken together, these three themes point to a broader reality. Utilities must make higher-stakes decisions faster, with less margin for error. AI-driven storm prediction, AMI 2.0, and interconnection challenges share a common thread: the need to turn complex data into clear, defensible action.
DTECH 2026 wasn’t about shiny tools. It was about readiness. The utilities making the most progress are investing in analytics, platforms, and processes that connect forecasting to planning — and planning to execution.
As the grid continues to evolve, these shifts aren’t just trends. They define what comes next.
