2026 PLMA DER Grid Services Symposium:
Call for Presentations
Tips for Submitting a Successful Presentation Proposal
PLMA is searching for exceptional proposals from across the energy industry that explore lessons learned and experiences to date with grid resources provided through DERs, as well as knowledgeable and well-founded discussions about the unresolved challenges to widely implementing DR/DERs as grid services. PLMA highly values proposals that include participation by utilities, consumers, and other market actors. Please, no sales pitches.
Presentations of any length or style will be considered with preference for 30 to 45-minute interactive sessions, or 75-minute workshops, in which up to one third of the time is reserved for audience discussion. All topics and presenters will be considered, however PLMA especially values sessions having specific, actionable ties to flexible load management, demand response, and/or distributed energy resources, as follows:
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Breaking Down Internal and/or External Silos
Examples include story telling about cross-department utility initiatives, effective stakeholder engagement on regulatory topics, novel partnerships that enabled scale, and similar. -
Utility Paths to DERs as a Grid Resource
Examples include past, present, and future experiences of individual to multi-device management, integrations between DERMS & ADMS, DSM programs, IRP Regulatory conversations, and similar. -
Progressive Program / Market ExamplesExamples include FERC 2222, ERCOT ADER, the Arizona DER Aggregation Tariff, the Connecticut Grid Flexibility Marketplace, New York’s Non-Wires Alternatives, and similar.
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Differentiating or Aligning Value Streams
Examples include addressing double-counting incentives and/or impacts, and determining precedence for event and command use cases or callers, and similar. -
Retail Incentive Design Examples
Examples include tariffs, enrollment/participation rebates, performance-based incentives/penalties, third-party risk/reward sharing, financed/on-bill installation, and similar.
Completing your Presentation Proposal
PLMA’s submission form requests information about your presenters, your topic, its relevance to PLMA’s Symposium audience, and your intended learning objectives.
Proposal acceptance decisions will be made by PLMA’s DERs as a Grid Resource Taskforce on September 26, 2025.
Presenters are responsible for their own conference registration costs, travel, and if applicable, hotel expenses.
All presenters must agree to comply with the PLMA Presenter Policy and Code of Conduct.
Important Note about Symposium Deadlines
PLMA deeply appreciates the best efforts of all Symposium participants to adhere to all event deadlines, which makes it possible for PLMA to complete the event planning process accurately and on-schedule without significantly over-taxing our volunteer leaders and staff.
- October 17: All speakers and co-presenters must be registered to attend the Symposium.
- October 24: A current speaker bio and headshot portrait must have been sent to Monica Hammond.
- January 5: All draft slides must have been submitted for review to the Symposium Co-Chairs and PLMA Staff.
- January 19: All rehearsals and presentations must have been practiced, reviewed, and finalized.
Volunteer to Score Presentation Proposals
PLMA member practitioners are invited to serve as volunteer scorers of the presentation proposals for this event. The scoring task requires reviewing and scoring submissions based on a list of criteria that includes industry relevance and the interest level for each presentation’s approach. If you would like to score, but have also submitted your own presentation proposal, you will have the opportunity to recuse yourself from scoring your own or your organization’s proposed presentation
Please email Monica Hammond if you’d like to volunteer to score the DER Symposium presentation proposals.
Thank you!