The Rubber Meets the Road. At the end of last year, we marveled and worried about the forecasts for staggering load growth in the years ahead, largely at the hands of AI-crunching data centers. Today, those forecasts, real or perceived, are driving up prices for power and the infrastructure required to produce more of it.
Will these forecasts materialize or will other factors, such as the cost and struggle to add more power, create a different result? Ask me two years from now. In the meantime, this shock to the electric system reminds us that consistent forward planning, prioritizing what we can control, and building a business that can swiftly adapt to change, is what keeps us out of the ditch.
Our 2026 Focus
In that spirit, we enter 2026 with a full plate of strategic objectives designed to advance and further sophisticate our power supply planning software, identify long-term reliability solutions from assets we know, own, or control, and build financial management tools that provide the ability to forecast our financial profile under many different potential future environments. These efforts will provide long-term organizational dividends.
Our ability to achieve these objectives comes from deeper collaboration with our members and the ideas and hard work of the great employees of MPPA. We recognize these are our competitive strengths and intend to lean into them further in 2026.
Each year there are unanticipated events and 2025 had its fair share from the DOE Orders keeping the Campbell units running to MISO’s proposed tariff changes to Behind the Meter Generation market rules, to name a few. We know in 2026 there will be a few surprises, but we will overcome whatever they may be and maintain our focus on the long-term objectives.
Patrick A. Bowland CEO
General Manager
