2026 Agenda

Welcome and Opening Address from the Chair

• How are data centers, AI buildouts, and manufacturing reshoring reshaping US power demand curves over the next decade?
• What are utilities and ISOs forecasting for load growth regionally, and how are they planning capacity to meet it?
• Which sectors (industrial, commercial, residential) are expected to drive the steepest increases, and how might electrification of transport and buildings compound demand?
• How are investors viewing demand growth forecasts when making siting and capital-allocation decisions for storage?
• What role will large corporate offtakers and energy-intensive industries play in shaping grid planning and contracting models?

With FEOC rules in force since January 2026, developers and financiers are already dealing with the realities of enforcement. This session examines the first 90 days of compliance: which suppliers are passing scrutiny, how financiers are adapting covenants and diligence, and whether domestic supply can scale to fill the gap. Speakers will share hard lessons from early projects, highlight the costs of traceability and certification, and debate how FEOC will reshape sourcing, contracting, and capital flows for storage in 2026 and beyond.

• How are developers balancing timelines against the need to source compliant kit – delay projects or proceed with risk exposure?
• What tools and processes are proving most effective for traceability and verification of components, and what costs are being added to projects?
• How are financiers, tax equity, and transferability buyers adjusting covenants, warranties, and diligence to reflect FEOC risks?
• Is domestic manufacturing capacity scaling fast enough to absorb redirected demand, and how are developers structuring contracts or JVs to secure supply?

• How do federal and state rules translate demand forecasts into siting decisions: Behind The Meter (BTM) vs Front of Meter (FTM)?
• What regulatory mechanisms (capacity accreditation, interconnection reform, tariff adders) are most critical for grid-scale (FTM) storage in 2026?
• How are BTM markets — from community storage to commercial and industrial (C&I) demand response — being enabled or held back by policy fragmentation, permitting standards, and rate design?
• What does this patchwork mean for developers and investors allocating capital between distributed portfolios and large-scale builds?
• Which regulatory reforms would most directly unlock both markets in the next 12 months?

With the updated NFPA 855 now mandating Large-Scale Fire Testing (LSFT) for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), system-level fire performance under real-world conditions has become a critical requirement for permitting, design, and risk evaluation. This presentation shares firsthand insights from a full-scale LSFT conducted on Trina Storage’s 5MWh Elementa 2 Pro platform in accordance with UL 9540A:2025-11 and aligned with the forthcoming NFPA 855:2026 framework. Executed by TÜV Rheinland with professional oversight from The Hiller Companies, the test deliberately exceeded minimum requirements—utilizing ultra-tight container spacing, 100% state of charge, disabled suppression systems, and intensified ventilation—to stress the system under extreme thermal conditions. Despite sustained fire temperatures exceeding 1300°C in the initiating container, no thermal runaway propagation occurred. Adjacent containers remained structurally sound and fully operational, and notably, the initiating container itself maintained structural integrity with no collapse and was safely lifted after the test. The results demonstrate how rigorous LSFT can validate robust BESS safety design, support regulatory confidence, and establish a practical benchmark for compliance with the new NFPA 855 standard.

• Strategies for developers to manage the massive capital risk associated with these high, volatile, equipment costs
• What battery equipment is starting to be manufactured in the US and what’s the outlook for that?
• The outlook for the EPC ecosystem given that developers are likely to prioritise projects in the near-term future that carry greater margins, applying pressure for developers to secure those projects with a limited market pool of EPCs providers to work with
• Practical steps developers and their EPC partners are taking – including advanced procurement planning and taking on more interface risk – to secure bankability and compete for the same strained supply chain resources

• Revenue Insurance Evolution: How are revenue insurance products structured for energy arbitrage, capacity payments, and ancillary services? What performance metrics are insurers using to price policies across different technologies?
• Battery Fire Risk Management: What fire prevention technologies are becoming insurance requirements? How are insurers evaluating fire risk profiles of different chemistries and UL 9540A testing impacts?
• Cyber and Supply Chain Coverage: How are insurers addressing cybersecurity risks for grid-connected systems? What supply chain liability coverage exists for project delays and geopolitical disruptions?

• Key fire safety risks in current grid-scale BESS and how developers are mitigating them in design and EPC contracts
• What insurers, lenders, and offtakers now expect to see on safety, warranties, and testing before backing a project
• How different chemistries such as sodium-ion and lithium iron phosphate compare on safety performance and investor acceptance
• Practical steps for operators to limit liability and ensure compliance with evolving codes and insurance requirements

• Which types of storage projects (standalone merchant, solar plus storage hybrids, tolling agreements, long duration, aggregated BTM portfolios) are attracting capital in 2026?
• How has investor risk appetite shifted, and what return profiles are now considered acceptable across regions?
• How are financing structures adapting post FEOC and amid ancillary market saturation?
• Which contracting and risk mitigation tools such as hedges, insurance, and synthetic Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are lenders and investors relying on?
• How is rising power demand from commercial and industrial buyers, including hyperscaler data centers, influencing investor interest in the C&I storage space?
• What lessons from 2025 deals are shaping where capital flows in 2026 and 2027?

Welcome and Opening Address from the Chair

• This panel session opens with a short presentation on ERCOT’s perspective on the role of storage in integrating Texas’ growing renewable generation
• The operational requirements and performance expectations for storage assets on the ERCOT grid
• Why ERCOT’s merchant storage market depends on a handful of extreme price days each year
• How asset owners and traders prepare to capture value during these scarcity events
• The risk of missing those days and what that means for revenue models and lender confidence
• How saturation of ancillary services is reshaping merchant storage strategies in Texas

• Grid regulators MISO, SPP, and PJM will publish incremental accreditation and interconnection process tweaks. That will shift which durations and configurations clear.
• How can developers, data center offtakers, grid operators, and regulatory actors, in particular, work together to create a more efficient environment for interconnecting?
• Optimising processing of interconnection studies that have long brought delays and uncertainty in the grid interconnection application process
• Does the policy landscape require a rethink if one of the byproducts in removing tax credit opportunities for wind and solar developers consequently mean projects are withdrawing their applications to connect to the grid?

• Regional Development Strategies: Which developers are most active in specific markets and technology segments? How are established renewable developers adapting for storage, and what new entrants are gaining pipeline traction?
• M&A Valuation Trends: What asset types are commanding premium valuations in recent transactions? Which risks are buyers avoiding, and how are sellers positioning portfolios across different maturity stages?
• Evolving Financing Structures: How are financing models adapting to different storage technologies and revenue streams? What new risk allocation mechanisms are emerging between developers, investors, and lenders?
• Tariff uncertainty: Safeguarding against pricing projections, strategic resource planning for developers, and ensuring supply dependability