One question, utility by utility
We asked across the membership: what does load forecasting need right now that no single utility can build alone? The answers were consistent. Shared methods. Tool transparency. The data pipelines and the business case underneath them. And a trusted peer network where it is safe to say “I don’t know.”
What came out of itThe blueprint for the series.
The kickoff
More than 100 registered, and 76 people from 31 utilities worked 16 live discussion threads, from data governance and uncertainty to the business case.
What came out of itThe problem map the cohort has worked from since.
Austin: the pods form
The first in-person working session, with researchers from the National Laboratory of the Rockies working alongside the utilities. The cohort organized itself into three pods: methods and curves, tools and benchmarking, and data pipelines and the business case.
What came out of itThree standing pods, each with its own work plan.
The pods get to work
Three concurrent pod sessions, each pushing its own thread forward between the in-person workshops.
What came out of itEach pod’s first working outputs, carried into Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh, then the Workbook
The second in-person workshop, at the Energy Innovation Center, where NLR led the business case and governance exercises. Three of the four governance threads went straight into AEIC’s Data Framework Working Group.
What came out of itThe Practitioner Workbook, shipped to the whole cohort on April 24.
The on-ramp
41 attendees from 24 utilities: a Workbook walkthrough, a practitioner methods share, and the launch of the large-load survey. Sponsored by Integral Analytics.
What came out of itThe large-load survey, run with NLR.
Reference Guide v1.0
The cohort’s methods, tools and practices pulled into one reference, so the fall workshops could start from what the group already knew.
What came out of itThe AEIC Load Forecasting Reference Guide v1.0.
Methods and tools
System-level forecasting and the granular work underneath it: feeder-level approaches, capacity checks and work-order thresholds. A live Tool Landscape Matrix update, pod roundtables, and the scoping of the Workbook’s next edition.
What came out of itPod C’s business case toolkit and the scope for Workbook v2. The Denver report follows in the same format as the others.
Large load: pulling the threads together
Materialization and the confidence gate: what counts as real in the interconnection queue. The large-load survey findings, then practitioners from TVA, Dominion Energy, Alabama Power, APS and Con Edison on how they forecast and gate large load. Day two pulls system, granular and large load into one workbook. Chicago is also where the series meets AEIC’s Data Center Task Force. Hosted and sponsored by Sargent & Lundy at its Chicago headquarters.
Closing the year
The closing session for 2026, and the cohort’s 2027 action plan: what it builds next, and who leads it.
Into the committee
The cohort moves into AEIC’s Load Research & Analytics Committee, carrying the pods, the Workbook and the Reference Guide with it, so the work outlasts the series.
