January 20-22, 2026 | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center 
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ZONES

The POWERGEN free to attend Zones are bite-sized informative talks on emerging technologies and trends, digitalization, and innovative practices/processes. The Hubs provide topical insight and knowledge transfer opportunities to both presenters and delegates.

Center Stage

Attend high-level, elevated conversations featuring executives and thought leaders about prominent issues affecting the power generation sector. Center Stage is located inside the POWERGEN exhibit hall, capturing the added buzz of the show floor.

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Zones

Who Should Attend:

Engineers (Specifying, Mechanical, Consulting)

Operators

Project Managers

Dealers and distributors

EPCs

Location:

Free to attend, the Zones are open theaters in various locations throughout the exhibit hall. These convenient locations allow for quick access for follow-up conversations with peers and exhibitors.

Registration Package Includes:

Access to the Zones is included in all registration packages.

Format:

These informative sessions are a mix of sponsored sessions and curated content from our advisory committee and in-house content team. The sessions are 45 minutes long and generally include case studies and Q&A.

Nuclear

Interest in nuclear power is growing as a firm, carbon-free energy source. Conventional reactors could be restarted as large-load customers like data centers drive electricity demand, while the first smaller, modular reactors could come online by the end of the decade. This pavilion focuses on nuclear’s use cases and evolving policy support, O&M and obstacles for the industry, including financing, workforce and supply chain. 

  • Evolving policy support 
  • Supply chain and construction costs 
  • Maintenance and outage management 
  • O&M case studies 
  • Safety and compliance 
  • Workforce challenges 
  • Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Microreactors 
  • Advanced reactor economics 
  • Using data and digital tools 

O&M

This hub focuses on the strategic management of assets by plant owners and operators, using the latest processes and data-driven solutions to enhance workforce productivity, extend asset life and ensure continuous operations. 

  • Optimizing plant performance
  • Retrofits and upgrades
  • Predictive, preventative and corrective maintenance
  • Remote monitoring 
  • Outage management 
  • SCADA and CMMS 
  • Case studies on equipment upgrades 
  • Weatherization strategies
  • New technologies for plant O&M
  • Data analytics
  • Artificial Intelligence/augmented reality 

Hydropower

Hydroelectric power plays a vital role in the generation mix, offering a reliable and renewable source of electricity. Speakers in this hub will explore hydropower's latest breakthroughs, growth opportunities and the challenges surrounding its sustainability, environmental impact and technological advancements.

  • Environmental and ecological considerations
  • Advancements in turbine design
  • Dam rehabilitation and upgrades
  • Pumped storage
  • O&M strategies and case studies
  • Economics and financing
  • Policy and regulatory frameworks
  • Small-scale hydropower solutions
  • Digital tools and data analytics for monitoring

Data Center

A hub to give data center companies and power generators the chance to network, share technical case studies and showcase product demonstrations.

  • Onsite power solutions tailored to data centers
  • Co-location strategies
  • Technical case studies
  • Data center energy management
  • Managing grid reliability and resilience for data centers
  • Innovative products and technologies
  • Policy and regulatory
"This is my first year at POWERGEN and so far I can just say, wow, this event is huge. I never thought I would have access to so many different vendors and so many different experts in the energy industry by coming to an event like this."
Caitlyn Watkins
Cleco
"It's my first time at POWERGEN. I'm having a great time walking around and seeing all of the booths in the exhibit hall and everything that everybody's trying to sell me, as well as a lot of very useful technical presentations. My particular favorite has been the carbon capture track, but they've all been good that I've attended so far."
Janelle Dana
Entergy
"Hi, I’m Chad Lemoine with Entergy... here as a corrective actions program specialist. It’s my first time at POWERGEN, so it’s been great for networking. I’ve met personnel at our plants I’d only talked to on the phone, so that face-to-face interaction has been really good. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people, learning about what they do, and how it interacts with my work... Overall, it's been a really good time." 
Chad Lemoine
Entergy
"I think my favorite part of the conference has been essentially the Smarter Power Plant Track. There's been a lot of good [takeaways] for us because our plans are quite old, so there's a lot of manual readings and things, but me being the IT generation, I think it could be done better. So having a lot of these [takeaways] from companies who have [accomplished what] we are wanting to do is great. It's been really eye opening networking with all of the exhibitors [as well]. It's my first time here, but I don’t think it's going to be my last."
Jonathan Hellborg
Svensk Kraftreserv
“Nel’s chosen to sponsor and be part of POWERGEN because it's one of the more important shows in the hydrogen market, also the power generation market in general. Over the years, we've seen a shift in POWERGEN from more traditional power generation to a greater presence with renewables, and now with hydrogen, as an energy source, moving into the future.” 
Chris Van Name
Nel Hydrogen
“We're here today at the conference because I believe this is the largest power generation conference there is in the country. One, it's a way to get our name out and that's why we're sponsoring it. But two, it's also a great way to connect with other groups, other organizations and, you know, meet the people who are actually important for our own progression as a company.” 
James Walker
Nano Nuclear Energy, Inc
“We come to POWERGEN every year because it's a great show you can make great contacts in the renewable space, great contacts in the data center space, great contacts in the commercial industrial space. So that's why we're here every year. You should be here too.”
David D’Escoto
Maddox Industrial Transformer