Customized Energy Solutions

Speaker Announcement #2: CES Connect 2026

We're continuing to build out the CES Connect 2026 speaker lineup, and we're proud to announce our next featured presenter: Adam Kamins, Senior Director at Moody's Analytics.

Adam's session — "Navigating Unprecedented Uncertainty: The Economic Forces Driving Energy Market Volatility" — goes straight to the question every energy market participant is wrestling with right now: what is the macro economy actually telling us, and what does it mean for power markets over the next 12 to 24 months?

Drawing on Moody's Analytics national and regional forecasting work — the same analysis that NYISO and other grid operators use to build their own market forecasts — Adam will connect the dots between the broader economic picture and the forces driving volatility today: trade policy and tariff uncertainty, labor market and GDP trends, fuel price dynamics, and regional capacity constraints.

This isn't abstract economics. It's the analytical foundation underneath every pricing decision, every capacity investment, and every risk management strategy in the room.

Adam joins Andy Ott (former PJM CEO / Tapestry, Alphabet) on a program we'll continue announcing in the weeks ahead. September 16, Philadelphia — and it's shaping up to be a genuinely exceptional day.
Stay tuned.

If you're a CES client save your spot today, https://hubs.la/Q04jQFm80

Part 1 laid out the scale of the challenge. Part 2 is about what to do about it.

In the second installment of his ERCOT Large Load Integration series, our Lead Consultant Walekar moves from diagnosis to strategy — unpacking the approaches that are actually compressing time to power for developers who can't afford to wait 4–6 years for a transmission interconnection.

Behind-the-meter generation. Distribution-level bridge agreements. Acquiring sites with existing transmission service. Co-locating with stranded West Texas gas. These aren't theoretical options — they're the moves being made right now by developers competing for hyperscaler contracts in the most power-constrained market in the country.

Part 2 also covers what ERCOT and PUCT are doing to get ahead of it: anticipatory transmission planning, the new batch interconnection framework under Project 58481, and expanded demand response programs designed to turn large flexible loads into a reliability asset. Speed to power is the defining competitive variable in Texas right now. The developers who move smartest will win.

If you are a developer evaluating interconnection strategies or an investor sizing the Texas power market, we would welcome the conversation. Reach out to discuss how these dynamics apply to your project or portfolio — and how we can help you navigate what comes next. mailto:[email protected]

Read the full series and then schedule a call with our consulting team to discuss how these dynamics apply to your project or portfolio. We're ready to help you navigate what comes next.

https://hubs.la/Q04jQLVS0

Diwan Yu

Texas has always done things at scale. But nothing in ERCOT's history has tested the grid quite like what's happening right now.

445 GW of prospective new load in the interconnection queue by 2033. AI data centers, semiconductor fabs, hydrogen production facilities, LNG infrastructure — all demanding power at a speed the grid wasn't built to absorb. For every project that connects, dozens more wait in a queue measured not in months, but in years.

Our Lead Consultant, Walekar, breaks it all down in Part 1 of a new two-part series: ERCOT Large Load Integration Strategies and Forecast.

Part 1 covers what's driving the surge — AI infrastructure, industrial nearshoring, and flexible crypto mining — and the hard realities slowing it down: interconnection bottlenecks, transmission congestion, and a new PUCT gating framework that is reshaping who gets to stay in the queue and who doesn't.

Part 2 drops tomorrow with the strategies developers, regulators, and power providers need to know.

Navigating large load integration in ERCOT? Our consulting team works with developers, investors, and energy companies across the full interconnection lifecycle. Reach out to mailto:[email protected] to learn how we can help with your next project.

Read Pranao's article here, https://hubs.la/Q04jG9vy0

The clean energy industry's biggest stage is in Houston this week — and CES is there.

Our own Walekar, Lead Consultant, Energy Advisory Consulting – North America, is attending CleanPower 2026, where the conversations shaping the future of wind, solar, storage, and transmission are happening in real time.

And while Pranao is on the ground in Houston, he's also publishing something worth reading.

This week, watch for his two-part article series dropping this week on ERCOT Large Load Integration Strategies and Forecast — a deep dive into one of the most consequential challenges facing the Texas grid right now.

Large load growth isn't slowing down. The questions of how, where, and at what cost new demand connects to the grid are defining the next chapter of energy markets — and Pranao is breaking it down with the analytical depth our clients rely on every day.

Navigating large load integration in ERCOT or another market? Our consulting team is ready to help. If you're Houston reach out to Pranao while he's there, then contact us to learn more about how CES can support your strategy mailto:[email protected]

CES is in Montreal today.

Our own Ginger Hodge, Director of Market Intelligence – MISO, is on stage at the NAEMA 2026 Spring Conference sharing a third-party perspective on one of the most consequential conversations happening in the Midcontinent market right now.

Session: A Third-Party Perspective on Grid Transformation — MISO Strategy Update

MISO's grid transformation isn't a future story — it's unfolding now. Ginger brings the kind of independent, market-grounded view that only comes from living inside the data every day.
If you're in Montreal for NAEMA, this is a session worth being in. Go find Hodge and keep the conversation going.

Keynote Speaker Announcement: CES Connect 2026!

We're proud to announce that Ott will deliver the keynote address at CES Connect 2026 — our inaugural client conference, September 16 in Philadelphia.

Andy brings an unmatched perspective to the energy conversation. As former President & CEO of PJM Interconnection — the world's largest competitive wholesale electricity market — and now Head of Technical Operations at Tapestry (Alphabet), he has both run the grid at scale and is actively working to reinvent it.

His Keynote, “The Grid’s Next Chapter: From Franklin’s Spark to the Age of Intelligence” will trace 250 years of American energy innovation, from Benjamin Franklin’s earliest experiments. Andy will examine what this next era of the American grid actually looks like — the role of AI and unified modeling in grid forecasting, capacity management, and interconnection; what it will take to safely bring massive new loads online; and what the industry needs to do now to ensure a reliable, affordable, and resilient energy future.

Andy is the first of several exceptional speakers we'll be announcing for what promises to be a truly standout day for senior energy market executives from across the country.

Stay tuned — more to come.

If you are a CES client, reach out to us to learn how you can attend Connect 2026 at mailto:[email protected]

Stay tuned — more to come.

Customized Energy Solutions will be attending the CalCCA Annual Conference 2026 in Sacramento, CA from May 12–14, 2026.

As the energy industry continues to advance toward a more sustainable and resilient future, we look forward to engaging with community choice leaders, industry experts, and energy innovators driving the clean energy transition.

Meet our team:
• Ann Yu
• Mike McGuffin
Let’s connect and discuss the future of renewable energy, market intelligence, and innovative energy solutions.

We’re excited to be a Gold Sponsor at the PJM Annual Meeting in Baltimore from May 11–13, 2026.
Meet our team at the event:
Kieran Barr, Brandon McGee, Jonathan Sasser, Ruth Fernands, Sam Selick, Rob Abraham, Larry Crudup
Our team is looking forward to connecting with industry leaders, discussing evolving market opportunities, and sharing insights on energy markets, renewable integration, and grid innovation.
If you’re attending the conference, stop by and connect with us to learn how Customized Energy Solutions continues to support the future of energy.
Baltimore, MD. |. May 11–13, 2026

Last night, Some members of the CES team traded their screens for seats at Bank Park — and the delivered. Final score: Phillies 6, Athletics 3.

There's something about watching your home team win with your work family that just hits different. Philadelphia is in our DNA — and nights like this remind us why we love being rooted here.

Shoutout to the whole crew for bringing the energy. Let's go Phillies!

Congratulations to Energy Solutions Hammerlund, Sr Consultant, Market Intelligence – MISO for being re-elected to the 2026 Board of Directors.

The North American Energy Markets Association (NAEMA) is an independent, nonprofit trade association representing entities involved in the buying and selling (marketing) of energy or in providing services to the energy industry. Members work together to promote an informed, efficient and open energy marketplace throughout North America. NAEMA has over 190 members with operations in 48 states and numerous Canadian provinces. NAEMA members own and operate over 700,000 megawatts of generating capacity and serve over 150 million electric and gas customers.