On January 5 and 6, 2026, several Sandians participated in the 14th IEEE Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) conference held at the Omni Tucson National Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona. Rodrigo Trevizan served as the Technical Chair and moderated Technical Session 5 – Electric Vehicle Integration. David Rosewater acted as the webmaster for the conference and moderated Technical Session 4 – Energy Storage Safety and Security. Ujjwol Tamrakar moderated Technical Session 2 – Energy Storage Performance, while Raymond Byrne moderated Technical Session 3 – Energy Storage Planning and Operation. Will McNamara moderated both Panel Session 1 – Energy Storage in Arizona: Impacts of Data Centers and AI and Panel Session 2 – Perspectives on LDES. Additionally, Daniel L. Villa, David Rosewater, Dilip Pandit, and Cody Newlun gave oral and poster presentations at the conference.
Will McNamara organized the panel “Energy Storage in Arizona: Impacts of Data Centers and AI” which included Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix; Lea Marquez Peterson, Arizona Corporation Commission; Brian Sherman, Chief Executive Officer – The NSF Futures Engine in the Southwest; Blaise Caudill, Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Resiliency and Energy Policy Advisor; and Chris Lindsey, Tucson Electric Power (TEP).
A second panel organized by McNamara, “Perspectives on Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES),” included multiple industry and non-profit panelists. These two panels were featured prominently on the EESAT agenda due to the importance of the topics covered and the prominence of the panelists representing Arizona-centric issues.
Since 2000, the EESAT conference has been a premier technical forum for advances in energy storage technologies and applications. The technical program showcases advances in electricity storage technologies, including new battery chemistries, power conversion systems, and energy management systems. The event is intended to provide a collaborative environment to address pressing technical energy storage challenges and opportunities within the energy sector to support policymakers, researchers, and industry professionals.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity (OE), Energy Storage Division.