OCTOBER 7-8, 2026
ANNUAL MARKET DEVELOPMENT FORUM
OCTOBER 7-8, 2026
Hilton Arden West, Sacramento, CA
The 17th Annual CESA Market Development Forum (MDF) will be held at the Hilton Arden West in Sacramento, CA, on October 7–8, 2026.
The MDF brings together representatives from across the energy storage ecosystem to discuss the evolving role of energy storage in advancing California’s decarbonization and grid reliability goals. The forum offers valuable opportunities to connect with California’s leading energy storage developers and industry experts, gain insight into the latest policy and market developments, and engage in discussions on topics including permitting, safety, long-term planning and procurement, resource adequacy, and more. Whether you’re a longtime participant or attending for the first time, we invite you to join us for California’s premier energy storage policy and market event.
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MDF ATTENDEE TICKET PRICES
Steering Committee Members
Steering Committee members receive two complimentary tickets.
Steering Committee members receive two complimentary tickets.
Agenda
DAY 1 - WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026
8:00 AM - 8:40 AM
Member Registration and Breakfast
8:40 AM - 9:30 AM
Annual CESA Member Meeting (CESA Members Only)
In this session, CESA members will discuss the key challenges and opportunities facing the energy storage industry and CESA’s strategic priorities for 2027.
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Non-member Registration
9:30 AM - 9:40 AM
Opening Remarks
• Scott Murtishaw, Executive Director, CESA
9:40 AM - 10:00 AM
Keynote Speaker - Information Coming Soon!
10:00 AM - 10:25 AM
Coffee Break
10:25 AM - 11:00 AM
The Next Decade of Storage: Market Progress and Drivers
This session will discuss the current market trends in energy storage and illuminate some of the key factors that determine the demand for clean energy and storage over the next decade.
• Arne Olson, Senior Partner, Energy+Environmental Economics (E3)
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Panel - Cannibalized by the Curve: Examining Storage’s Missing Value and How To Fix It
To achieve ambitious decarbonization goals, western grid operators require an unprecedented deployment of utilityscale energy storage. Yet, the economic engine driving this buildout faces an existential paradox: as more storage floods the grid to shift solar abundance, it flattens the very price spreads that sustain its market revenues.
This panel will dissect the regulatory and market design blind spots that leave storage’s true decarbonization value uncompensated. While storage provides the least-cost pathway to meeting stringent emissions reduction targets, what is the best approach to capturing that value via IRP frameworks, Resource Adequacy (RA) designs, or clean energy procurement obligations?
12:00 PM - 1:10 PM
Lunch
1:10 PM - 1:30 PM
Keynote Speaker - Information Coming Soon!
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Resource Adequacy for EDAM: Program Design, Storage Accreditation, and Market Opportunities
As the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) evolves, a new Resource Adequacy (RA) framework is being developed to support reliability across participating entities. This session will provide an update on the status of the proposed RA program, explain how energy storage resources are expected to be accredited, and explore how California ISO (CAISO) resources may be be able to provide RA capacity to EDAM entities. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the proposed framework and its potential implications for storage and market participants.
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM
Panel - Cracking the LDES Capacity Value Code: Reforming Slice-of-Day for Multi-Day Reliability
With California mandating multi-gigawatt procurements of Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) and Multi-Day Storage (MDS) to handle winter net-load drops, the market has run headfirst into a structural roadblock: the Slice-ofDay (SOD) RA framework is fundamentally built for a single, 24-hour period. It currently has no native way to reward an asset that operates over multiple days. This diverse panel of energy storage stakeholders will explore options for integrating the value of LDES into California’s reliability programs.
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM Coffee Break
3:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Panel - Unlocking FTM DERs - Overcoming the MidScale Storage Bottleneck
California’s clean energy planning has historically focused on large utility-scale resources, while the 1–10 MW distribution-connected “middle” segment has struggled to grow. These projects often struggle to pencil out, as the revenue streams available to them may not be sufficient to support viable project economics. Are California’s priorities and policy framework simply incompatible with this resource class, or is a fix within reach?
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
• Scott Murtishaw, Executive Director, CESA
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Reception
Agenda
DAY 2 - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Breakfast and Registration
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Keynote Speaker - Commissioner Noemí Gallardo, California Energy Commission
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Panel - Telling the BESS Story: Safety, Media, and Community Engagement
Earning and maintaining public trust has become a critical component of successful BESS project development. This panel will bring together communications experts, public affairs officials, and industry leaders to discuss effective strategies for communicating BESS safety, addressing community concerns, countering misinformation, and engaging local stakeholders and decision-makers. Attendees will gain practical insights on building credible narratives around energy storage’s role in supporting affordability, a reliable grid, energy resilience, and clean energy goals while fostering informed community support.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM - 12:00 AM
Panel - DAME in Practice: Early Results for Imbalance Reserves and Reliability Capacity
In May 2026, CAISO implemented the day-ahead market enhancements which introduce new market products: imbalance reserves to address uncertainty between dayahead and real-time and expanded reliablity capacity to include a downward product. CAISO will provide its perspective on the performance of the new products in meeting their objectives and REV Renewables will provide their perspective as a storage operator bidding and being awarded the new products.
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
Lunch
1:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Keynote Speaker - Information Coming Soon!
1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
Panel - Topic TBD
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM
(Tentative) Panel - Powering Big Tech: Unlocking Storage Opportunities in the Data Center Boom California helped create the digital economy, yet much of the nation’s new hyperscale data center development is occurring in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and other fastgrowing markets. As AI drives unprecedented electricity demand, states are competing to attract investment while balancing reliability, affordability, and clean energy goals. What factors are steering data center development away from California? Are there policy, planning, permitting, or infrastructure changes that could improve the state’s competitiveness? And regardless of where data centers are built, what opportunities does the resulting load growth create for energy storage developers, utilities, and technology providers across the Western grid?
3:45 PM -4:00 PM
Wrap-Up and Next Steps
• Scott Murtishaw, Executive Director, CESA
