APEX is a high-level stakeholder engagement platform convened by EPRI to facilitate structured dialogue among select representatives across global regulators, national laboratories, government, finance, non-governmental, philanthropic and other public benefit organizations. The forum addresses the defining challenge of our era: the rapid increase in capabilities of AI across industries and the parallel escalation of AI-driven electricity demand and what it means for grid reliability, resilience, and affordability.
AI is reshaping electricity demand at a pace the grid was not designed to absorb. APEX convenes critical decision-makers to accelerate adoption of future-facing industry innovation. To lead this transition, EPRI has launched two cornerstone technical initiatives: DCFlex and Open Power AI.
Data Center Flexible Load Initiative (DCFlex)
A multi-year initiative demonstrating how data centers can serve as flexible grid resources to enable speed to power. It provides a strategic blueprint for utilities and regulators to manage interconnection efficiency and grid stability through research and frameworks, operational demonstration projects and tools.
Open Power AI (OPAI) Consortium
A first-of-its-kind consortium to create an ecosystem to accelerate the development, co-innovation, and deployment of energy domain-specific AI and GenAI tools, models, and data for the power industry.
OVERVIEW
APEX is an invitation-only, executive-level platform that explores and directly informs the intersection of AI use cases, power system constraints, and regulatory alignment. APEX functions as a force multiplier by accelerating the exchange of cutting edge research and insights, equipping participating organizations to make their own evidence based decisions for the public good and reduce fragmentation and duplication across the ecosystem. APEX is a forum to connect and multiply the effectiveness of global efforts for all engaged organizations to accelerate change.
Every regulator, policymaker, research institution, and international organization is grappling with the same unprecedented challenges.
You’re not alone in facing these challenges. But solving them in silos means moving slower, reinventing the wheel, missing critical insights, and potentially making costly mistakes others have already made that could have been avoided.
AI capabilities continue to scale as major technology companies race to develop the most capable models, driving electricity demand faster than grid infrastructure can support.
Data centers are reshaping power system planning in ways we’ve never seen before
Each country and company is developing AI governance frameworks, often in isolation, and sometimes in ways that stifle innovation and reduce their ability to remain competitive.
The intersection of AI innovation and power system reliability requires new approaches
RESOURCES
DCFlex Newsletter
May 2026
DCFlex Newsletter
March 2026
OPAI Newsletter
March 2026
OPAI Newsletter
January 2026
OUR MEMBERS
APEX members represent the world's foremost thinkers at the intersection of artificial intelligence and electric power. Convened by invitation only, this community brings together senior leaders from regulatory bodies, national laboratories, universities, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations around the world, united by a shared commitment to ensuring that the rapid growth of AI infrastructure strengthens, rather than strains, the global grid. Their expertise spans energy systems, policy, grid operations, climate finance, and technology governance. Explore their profiles below.
CONTACTS
DCFlex
- Jessica Lin
- Technical Executive
- jlin@epri.com
Open Power AI Consortium
- Jeremy Renshaw
- Director
- jrenshaw@epri.com