The ACES Symposium convened a diverse spectrum of stakeholders—from public utilities and global technology firms to government agencies and academic pioneers. Their collective takeaways highlight a shared sense of urgency and a commitment to collaborative innovation.
On the Scale of the Challenge
These are atypical loads…We're not used to experiencing loads like this in our sector…we're already seeing changes to how we are planning and operating our electric system in response to these taking place…utilities around the U.S. are up for this challenge.
— Matt Green, TRC
We know something big is happening, and we have to be in position—as a university, as a community, as a state, as a nation, as a world—to get ready for it.
— Denise Lee, Cisco
On Pennsylvania’s Strategic Role
We have relatively abundant water and electricity and a strategic location in the heart of the Northeast. We are, in many ways, an ideal home for this digital infrastructure. But there are challenges and we must go into this with our eyes wide open…we now must learn to forecast and manage our regional "electricity-sheds" by coordinating supply and demand in a dynamic, real-time way.
— Nathan Urban, Provost, Lehigh University
We are at an inflection point, where the decisions we make today, the innovations we put into place today, can literally change the world for future generations….this is a critical moment for Pennsylvania's energy future. As we welcome new industries and evolving technologies, we need to strike the right balance.
— Katie Zerfuss, PA Public Utility Commission
On the Integrated Grid
Reliability is priority one. But reliability is not just a technical engineering concept. It has a social and an economic aspect to it.
— Emanuel Bernabeu, PJM Interconnection
The key to success to enable this really remarkable growth is to think about all assets holistically…how different types of generation, carbon capture, transmission grid, loads all play a role together, and are all part of the solution.
— Ross Groffman, Next Era Energy
On Innovation and Speed to Market
Development cycles for some of these technologies are long. By the time they're developed, the technology is already outdated in some sense. So there is a dire need to develop solutions faster.
— Srujan Rokkam, Advanced Cooling Technologies
Probably the most important thing that we will need is proper design of mechanisms to elicit flexibility.
— Alberto Lamadrid, Lehigh University
On Policy and Partnerships
We need reliable, resilient systems that can power growing data center capacity, enable AI-driven industries, and support advanced manufacturing across the Commonwealth. But we can't do it alone. This transformation will depend on strong R&D partnerships between industry, academia and government—partnerships like those being catalyzed today by ACES and Lehigh University.
— Dave McCormick, US Senator
We need to capitalize on this moment of attention on AI growth, energy growth, to think through ways that we can generate enough political support across the aisle to build the infrastructure that will be needed to meet the demands, not just of our industry, but really a growing economy. A growing economy that requires energy to function requires new infrastructure. It needs an enabling political, policy, regulatory environment that allows companies and communities to grow built on that.
— Diana Rodriguez, Amazon Web Services