2026 LPPC Members Conference convenes more than 400 public power leaders, industry partners, and decision makers to Austin, Texas

Last week in Austin, more than 400 public power leaders, utility partners, and decision makers from across the country spent two days on a single question: how do the utilities serving 30.5 million people deliver reliability and affordability through the most consequential period in the history of the U.S. electric grid?

The agenda centered on the most pressing challenges facing our member utilities and the customers they serve. Serving the data center buildout without shifting costs onto existing customers. Responsibly delivering capital plans that have more than doubled. Getting more out of the grid we already have. Prepay, credit, and what the market will finance. Wildfire and storm liability. What building nuclear actually takes. Earning customer trust as bills rise. The impact the midterm election results will have on public power. And a fireside conversation with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) on where reliability stands. In the coming weeks, LPPC will share best practices and lessons learned from each of these sessions.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson welcomed attendees.

⚡ We presented LPPC’s Public Power Leadership Awards: Brandon Pixley (CPS Energy), Stephen Pelcher (Santee Cooper), Skip Peeples (Salt River Project), and Javier Fernandez (Omaha Public Power District).

⚡ We heard from dozens of sponsoring partners whose expertise helped shape the program.

⚡ Members met in peer group breakouts to trade best practices and analysis to take back to their utilities.Thank you to our co-hosting utilities Austin Energy and LCRA, our sponsors, our volunteer chairs, and everyone who made it happen.

For our customers, the work has only just begun.