IEEE PES Optimization Innovations Summit

Explore the latest advancements in mathematical optimization for power and utilities at this free virtual summit hosted by Gurobi through the IEEE PES Decision Intelligence and Optimization Task Force.

December 10, 2026

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM EST

Virtual

IEEE PES Optimization Innovations Summit

December 10, 2026

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM EST

Virtual

IEEE PES Optimization Innovations Summit

December 10, 2026

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM EST

Advancing Optimization in Power and Utilities

As the power and utilities industry faces increasing complexity, mathematical optimization is playing a critical role in addressing challenges related to grid reliability, electricity markets, resource planning, and the integration of emerging technologies.

Hosted by Gurobi through the IEEE PES Decision Intelligence and Optimization Task Force, the 2026 IEEE PES Optimization Innovations Summit brings together industry leaders, researchers, and technical experts to share emerging research, innovative methodologies, and real-world applications of mathematical optimization.

Join us for a day of expert-led presentations and technical discussions exploring how optimization is helping shape the future of power and utilities systems.

What You'll Explore

Hear from experts across industry and academia as they share insights into:

Grid Operations and Reliability: Optimization approaches for improving operational efficiency, system performance, and grid reliability.
Electricity Markets and Resource Scheduling: Innovative techniques for economic dispatch, market operations, and resource allocation.
Renewable Integration and Storage: Optimization methods supporting the integration of renewable generation, storage, and distributed resources.
Power System Planning: Mathematical optimization applications for infrastructure investment, capacity planning, and long-term decision-making.
Emerging Research and Innovation: New optimization models, algorithms, and computational approaches addressing complex power system challenges.

Event Format

This free, four-hour virtual summit features technical presentations and discussions from experts across the power and utilities industry and academic research community.

Attendees will participate virtually through the Whova event platform, with individual Zoom links for each session.

View the full agenda below.

Speakers

Meet Your Expert Speaker

Learn from the best in the industry.

Pascal Van Hentenryck
Head of AI Innovation
Dr. Pascal Van Hentenryck works at the intersection of AI and Optimization, with applications in energy, healthcare, logistics and supply chains, manufacturing, and transportation. He developed innovative optimization systems, including CHIP and OPL which have been in commercial use for several decades. Pascal pioneered what is now known as constraint programming, and has made seminal contributions to global, stochastic, and combinatorial optimization. His recent work focuses on AI for Optimization, to bring orders of magnitude speed-ups to solving optimization problems. Pascal is a AAAI and INFORMS fellow, and the recipient of two honorary degrees and numerous research and teaching awards. Pascal used to play soccer competitively, is an avid runner, and likes to travel the world with his family to discover new cultures and their history.
Richard O'Neill
Former Chief Economic Advisor at FERC
Dr. Richard O'Neill was Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) where he directed the Grid Optimization Competition and several other optimization and power system programs. Prior to ARPA-E, he served as the Chief Economic Advisor at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and as the Director of FERC's Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation. His work with governments and companies has included mathematical software, energy modeling, forecasting, open access, restructuring, competition, performance-based regulation, market power mitigation and market design. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering, an MBA and a Doctorate in operations research all from the University of Maryland.
Anamika Dubey
Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering
Dr. Anamika Dubey is Huie-Rogers Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of EECS at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and serves as the Co-director for the WSU-PNNL Advanced Grid Institute (AGI). She received her MSE and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Her research focuses on the scalable integration of cross-domain models and data to provide better decision support for increasingly complex electric power grids. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2019) and the IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2023).
Jesse Bukenberger
Research Staff, Energy Systems & Climate Analysis
Dr. Jesse P. Bukenberger is an Operations Research Specialist in the Energy Systems and Climate Analysis group. He joined EPRI in 2022.
His work focuses on developing new methods and algorithms to improve energy system models, and on using the structure of mathematical models to gain simple insights about the nature of complex problems in the energy industry. His research areas include climate resilient capacity planning, coordinated transmission and generation planning, extreme event characterization, and developing statistical and machine learning methods for scenario reduction and uncertainty representation. He is the capacity planning lead for EPRI’s Climate Resilience and Adaptation Initiative (READi).
Dr. Bukenberger holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from The Pennsylvania State University.

Speakers

Meet Your Expert Speaker

Learn from the best in the industry.

Pascal Van Hentenryck
Head of AI Innovation
Dr. Pascal Van Hentenryck works at the intersection of AI and Optimization, with applications in energy, healthcare, logistics and supply chains, manufacturing, and transportation. He developed innovative optimization systems, including CHIP and OPL which have been in commercial use for several decades. Pascal pioneered what is now known as constraint programming, and has made seminal contributions to global, stochastic, and combinatorial optimization. His recent work focuses on AI for Optimization, to bring orders of magnitude speed-ups to solving optimization problems. Pascal is a AAAI and INFORMS fellow, and the recipient of two honorary degrees and numerous research and teaching awards. Pascal used to play soccer competitively, is an avid runner, and likes to travel the world with his family to discover new cultures and their history.
Richard O'Neill
Former Chief Economic Advisor at FERC
Dr. Richard O'Neill was Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) where he directed the Grid Optimization Competition and several other optimization and power system programs. Prior to ARPA-E, he served as the Chief Economic Advisor at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and as the Director of FERC's Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation. His work with governments and companies has included mathematical software, energy modeling, forecasting, open access, restructuring, competition, performance-based regulation, market power mitigation and market design. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering, an MBA and a Doctorate in operations research all from the University of Maryland.
Anamika Dubey
Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering
Dr. Anamika Dubey is Huie-Rogers Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of EECS at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and serves as the Co-director for the WSU-PNNL Advanced Grid Institute (AGI). She received her MSE and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Her research focuses on the scalable integration of cross-domain models and data to provide better decision support for increasingly complex electric power grids. She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2019) and the IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2023).
Jesse Bukenberger
Research Staff, Energy Systems & Climate Analysis
Dr. Jesse P. Bukenberger is an Operations Research Specialist in the Energy Systems and Climate Analysis group. He joined EPRI in 2022.
His work focuses on developing new methods and algorithms to improve energy system models, and on using the structure of mathematical models to gain simple insights about the nature of complex problems in the energy industry. His research areas include climate resilient capacity planning, coordinated transmission and generation planning, extreme event characterization, and developing statistical and machine learning methods for scenario reduction and uncertainty representation. He is the capacity planning lead for EPRI’s Climate Resilience and Adaptation Initiative (READi).
Dr. Bukenberger holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from The Pennsylvania State University.

Speakers

Meet Your Expert Speaker

Learn from the best in the industry.

Head of AI Innovation
Pascal Van Hentenryck
Former Chief Economic Advisor at FERC
Richard O'Neill
Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering
Anamika Dubey
Research Staff, Energy Systems & Climate Analysis
Jesse Bukenberger