EV Charging Infrastructure Summit – North America: West, February 24- 25 2026, San Francisco, CA

Electric vehicle (EV) charging continues to grow fast in North America. According to the US EV Fast Charging — Full Year 2025 report from charging-analytics firm Paren, America’s public fast-charging network expanded at a record pace last year, with more than 18,000 new DC fast-charging ports installed nationwide. That represents the largest single-year buildout in U.S. history and a 30% increase over 2024.

Fleet and home EV charging are expanding rapidly across North America as electrification moves from early adoption into the mainstream. Commercial fleets are accelerating deployment as total cost of ownership advantages become clearer and corporate sustainability targets tighten, driving demand for reliable depot, workplace, and managed charging solutions. At the same time, home charging remains the backbone of daily EV use, with the majority of drivers relying on residential Level 2 charging for convenience, lower energy costs, and predictable access.

Utilities, automakers, and charging technology providers are investing heavily in software, energy management, and grid integration to support this growth, reflecting a broader shift toward distributed, customer centered charging infrastructure that complements public fast charging networks.

The 8th EV Charging Infrastructure Summit – North America: West covers the latest trends and opportunities shaping the rapidly growing EV charging market. The event will take place February 24 to 25, 2026, in San Francisco, California. Organized by Smart Grid Observer, the summit brings together leading industry experts, utilities, and energy professionals to examine a wide variety of topics.

The event will focus on the investments, technologies, and business models needed to optimize grid stability while improving the end user charging experience. Attendees will hear in-depth case studies from current utility programs and real world deployments, with discussions centered on refining strategies, identifying scalable solutions, and accelerating widespread EV adoption in a way that benefits all stakeholders.

Key topics include charger performance, reliability, and cybersecurity, trends in EV adoption and market direction, and proven strategies for starting and scaling charging networks in the United States. Sessions will also explore innovations in charging infrastructure and enabling technologies, incentives that drive consumer demand, and approaches to integrating renewable energy resources with EV charging.

Additional coverage will include the role of energy storage and microgrids, utility programs and lessons learned to date, and methods for scaling existing charging operator networks. Speakers will address the impact of EVs on grid operations and long term planning, regulatory requirements and standards development, and grid architecture modeling to ensure charging becomes a net benefit to the grid.

Municipal initiatives and perspectives will be highlighted alongside insights from EV manufacturers on charging infrastructure requirements. The agenda also includes discussions on public sector leadership, policy alignment, and cross industry collaboration.

The summit attracts a diverse group of attendees, including network strategists and executives from investor-owned, municipal, and rural utilities, charging network operators, grid operations engineers, EV program and fleet managers, and charging equipment manufacturers. Participants also include charging station owners, consultants, system integrators, auto OEMs, technology innovators, regulatory and standards professionals, urban and municipal transportation planners, and researchers from academic and analytical institutions.

Agenda Overview

The Summit begins on Tuesday, February 24 at 8:00 am with registration and a continental breakfast, followed by an opening address on the state of EV charging in the United States. Michael Sheppard, Chief Executive Officer of PTR, Inc., will outline national progress, emerging opportunities, and the outlook for infrastructure growth. The morning continues with a deep dive into transmission planning and grid expansion under FERC Order 1920, featuring Michael Hagerty of The Brattle Group, Peter Ambiel of Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Julia Selker of Grid Strategies LLC, who will discuss long term planning, cost allocation, and implications for high power EV charging. See more about Grid Strategies LLC in SGO Insight’s interview with Julia Selker.

Late morning sessions focus on scaling infrastructure and improving performance. Joey Berg, Chief Executive Officer of EnergiSpot, will address why now is the critical moment to accelerate EV infrastructure investment and how stakeholders can thrive amid rapid adoption. Russell Schmidt, Vice President of Digital Products at InCharge Energy, will follow with real world case studies showing how artificial intelligence and data driven charging systems expand capacity and improve utilization under grid constraints.

After lunch, the agenda shifts to global insights and operational challenges. Casper Rasmussen, CEO and Co Founder of Monta, will share lessons from five years of Nordic EV charging deployment and what U.S. charge point operators can apply immediately. Sessions include Daniel Engelman, Vice President at Ubicquia, examining how grid conditions directly impact EVSE reliability. See more about Ubicquia in Engleman’s interview with SGO Insight.

Benoit Lacroix, Co Founder and CEO of Relion, will discuss effective charger operations and maintenance built on collaboration rather than reactive fixes. Cybersecurity risks are addressed by Cameron Mott of Southwest Research Institute, who will outline current attack vectors affecting chargers, vehicles, and charging networks.

The afternoon continues with advanced energy integration topics. Alexander Stratmoen, Chief Executive Officer of Voltra, will present on software-defined microgrid controls for integrating solar, storage, and EV charging. Wayne Morrison and Stephen Bedford of Reliant will explore how vehicle to grid technology is transforming EVs into grid assets within virtual power plants.

A multi speaker panel led by Gwendolyn Brown of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Zach Woogen of the Vehicle Grid Integration Council, Alex Pfeifer Rosenblum of CALSTART, Dr. Aravind Kailas of Volvo Group, and Lindsay Shigetomi of the Environmental Defense Fund will discuss strategies states are using to accelerate EV charger energization. The day concludes with a case study on microgrids beyond the grid, featuring a fireside chat between Shana Patadia of Synop and Doug Merritt of Prologis, followed by a networking reception.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026, opens with a focus on resilient and affordable fleet charging. Russell Gentile, Commissioning Engineer at ABM Industries, will discuss strategies for public and private fleets, followed by Tom McCalmont, CEO of Paired Power, who will examine solar to EV charging solutions and energy management systems using real world deployment data. Reliability and uptime are addressed by Bill Ferro, Chief Technology Officer at Paren, who will explain how networks achieve and sustain 97 percent uptime under NEVI and state requirements.

Midday sessions turn to security, fleet operations, and managed charging. Tom Tansy and Vish Ganti of DER Security Corp., joined by Dr. Dante Sblendorio of Critical Loop and Damon Kachur of SecureG, will present a proposed public key infrastructure strategy for securing vehicle-to-grid networks using ISO 15118 and IEEE 2030.5 protocols. Leah Brams of Highland Electric Fleets and Rudi Halbright of Pacific Gas and Electric Company will share school bus case studies demonstrating advances in managed charging and energy dispatch. Virginia Hewitt of InCharge Energy will discuss proactive service and maintenance strategies for high utilization EV charging sites.

The summit concludes with a discussion of forward-looking technologies and standards. Kevin Cameron, President of Prezent Energy, will explore mobile robotics as a solution for making charging ubiquitous. The final panel on interoperability and data standards features Carolyn Weiner of the Electric Vehicle Charging Accessibility Network and Trishan Peruma, CEO North America of Hubject, who will examine roaming, plug and charge, and the open protocols required to scale secure, seamless EV charging across networks and regions.

EVinfo.net is pleased to be an official media partner of the Summit in San Francisco. Be sure to enter the discount code EVINFO for 15% off when registering online. The full agenda for the two-day event is online here.

The Smart Grid Observer is an independent online newsletter and information resource serving the global sustainable energy industry. SGO organizes several Forums each year, including its related V2G Forum.