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EMH Annual Forum 2026 · 5th Edition — Call for Panelists & Posters

Where Models Meet Reality
December 16–17, 2026 · Carleton University, Ottawa

We are thrilled to invite you to participate in the 2026 EMH Annual Forum, which will be held on December 16-17, in Ottawa. The theme of this year’s event is “When Models Meet Reality.” As governments across Canada are setting out ambitious visions for the energy transition, this Forum asks what it takes to turn those ambitions into decisions that get made and infrastructure that gets built, and whether we’re even asking the right questions.

Call for Panelists – Guidelines

Rather than a call for presentations, we’re issuing a call for panelists. Each session below is built around a set of guiding questions. Tell us which ones you’d like to engage with, and what angle you’d bring to the discussion, analytical, economic, policy, regulatory, industry, or lived experience. We’re looking for participants across a wide range of backgrounds, and we’ll build panels that put those different angles in conversation with one another.

If you prefer to submit a poster, please indicate that on the form, a poster pitch competition runs both days. Please encourage your students and colleagues to submit their applications!

Apply by August 21

Session 1: What models tell us about the transition vision

Governments across Canada are putting forward competing visions for the electricity transition. This session asks what our models actually tell us about those paths.

• Can current modelling tell us whether proposed build-outs are deliverable, not just least-cost on paper?
• Are these paths even least-cost, toward what: affordability, decarbonization, or energy security?
• Where are the blind spots: financing, labour, supply chains?
• Where do choices raise rights, environmental, or safety concerns regardless of approval speed?
• What energy-security and geopolitical risks do these paths introduce?

Session 2: Where the blind spots are: what models miss about the vision

This session asks where our models fall short, on demand, behaviour, markets, and more, and what it would take to close those gaps.

• What does multi-model comparison reveal about where models agree, diverge, and which gaps matter for decisions?
• How well do we model demand growth, efficiency, flexibility, and sufficiency?
• How do we handle exogenous shocks like AI-driven demand growth?
• Where do models still fail to capture real-world behaviour, markets, and prices?
• How do we move toward shared, reproducible infrastructure the whole community can trust?

Session 3: Interties, from “optimal” to built

Interties have looked cost-effective for years without breaking ground. This session brings economists, regulators, and transition experts into the room to say what’s missing.

• What are models leaving out that explains why “optimal” interties don’t get built?
• How should cost allocation be represented, given it’s what stalls projects?
• Can institutions and regulatory machinery actually deliver interties?
• What is the political economy of interties: whose interests align, whose don’t?
• What should modellers build into their work to make results actionable?

Session 4: Value chains and industrial strength

From critical minerals to components, this session puts industry practitioners alongside modellers to ask where Canada can build real industrial strength.

• Where can Canada build genuine strength in transition value chains?
• Where does electrification work for heavy industry, and where doesn’t it?
• How well do models handle alternatives: CCUS, hydrogen, alternative fuels?
• What does industrial reality look like from the plant floor?
• How does political economy, incumbents, competitiveness, carbon costs, shape modelling assumptions?

Session 5: Affordable, reliable, and efficient: electrification and the demand side

This session asks how demand management, flexibility, and efficiency reshape what a reliable grid actually requires.

• How sensitive are build-out conclusions to demand assumptions?
• How large and uncertain is new load from AI and data centres?
• What can demand-side management and efficiency realistically deliver?
• How do costs and benefits of electrification land across regions and households?
• How do we weigh trade-offs between affordability, reliability, and decarbonization?

Session 6: AI and the frontier of modelling

AI is changing how modelling gets done. This session asks where it genuinely strengthens the workflow, and where it introduces risk.

• Where can AI reliably improve modelling, and where does it introduce risk?
• How can AI help with data cleaning, gap-filling, and harmonization?
• Can AI speed up modelling while keeping results trustworthy?
• What role can AI play in interpreting and communicating results for decision-makers?
• How do we preserve transparency and reproducibility when AI is in the loop?

Session 7: Deciding under uncertainty