Well, that’s Day 1 at DTech 2026 in the books.
What stood out most today wasn’t a single headline announcement — it was the hunger to learn, experiment, and connect. The day felt like a prelude built out of high-energy micro-moments: pre-meetings and panel lines long enough to wrap down the hall, Energy Central on the stage at one of the day’s most packed panels, and a steady stream of conversations that turned technical topics into human stories. Our crew was everywhere—catching sessions, meeting with partners, and circling back to trade notes—because the real value of DTech is what happens between the sessions.
A few themes kept surfacing.
First: digital modernization is no longer optional. Sessions on virtual substation protection and substation/grid digitalization were packed with practitioners who want practical deployments, not just concepts. That engineering-focused energy was infectious — shout-out to the panelists who made the room feel like a home field for grid nerds demonstrating how modernization actually gets built and maintained.
Second: automation and AI are moving from curiosity to core utility operations. The “Powering the Digital Grid with Network Automation & AI-Driven Operations” session drew a line around the corner for a reason — utilities are hungry for operational tools that scale. Attendees weren’t just applauding the promise of AI; they wanted frameworks, vendors that understood operational constraints, and peers who’ve already weathered implementation surprises.
Interconnection bottlenecks and data center load growth emerged as perhaps the most consequential challenge of the day. Energy Central’s Kinsey Grant Baker quarterbacked a hit session on the data center transmission queue that delivered a clear, practical tension: hyper-scalers want reliable, fast connections, but the current interconnection timeline and land constraints make rapid scale difficult. The panel hit a useful balance — acknowledging the friction while offering a path forward: flexibility in planning, smarter transmission-level solutions, and system-wide AI forecasting to reduce uncertainty.
Telecom and power convergence was another major thread. ComEd’s presentation on private LTE drew a full room, and the lessons were pragmatic: fiber everywhere isn’t realistic, hybrid approaches make sense, and pilots must be designed to pivot. The pilot-and-pivot mindset came up repeatedly — you need flexibility in technology and governance to iterate quickly without losing progress.
So Day 1 felt like the industry leaning in — asking hard questions and offering candid answers. There were long lines, full rooms, and plenty of takeaways to swap over coffee or after-hours drinks. If that was the end of the conference, we’d already feel fully reinspired to hit the ground running and help the power sector solve the biggest problems of today through creativity, collaboration, and optimism. But lucky for is—this was just the first day! And tomorrow is when the show floor opens for the first time? AND we’re pre-gaming that with Energy Central’s breakfast before the event?
We can’t wait to see what the additive takeaways will be as we traverse this amazing week where our industry gets together and truly shines.