Fortnightly Top Innovators 2026

Recognizing Excellence in Energy Innovation

Presented by Public Utilities Fortnightly and powered by the Smart Electric Power Alliance, these awards honor the utility leaders, technology pioneers, and industry partners advancing practical, high-impact innovation across the entire energy ecosystem.

New for 2026
Ceremony attendees name the Top Innovator of the Year by live vote during the event.

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October 29, 2026

Washington, D.C.

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Why Nominate?

A Fortnightly Top Innovators Award distinguishes your project or team among the leaders setting the pace for the industry.

Ceremony Recognition

On-stage recognition at the 2026 awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Media Spotlight

Featured in official announcements and Public Utilities Fortnightly editorial coverage.

Digital Placement

A permanent feature in the PUF Hall of Fame, plus case-study visibility.

Networking

Year-round opportunities to connect with and be spotlighted alongside industry leaders.

Past Winners Hall of Fame

Explore the projects and leaders who have earned a Top Innovator Award in years past.

View the Hall of Fame

Award Categories

Where Innovation Meets Impact

Five core categories, each anchored by a pioneering figure whose legacy reflects the spirit of the award.

Leadership in Innovation

George Westinghouse Award

Honoring executive leaders driving bold corporate strategy and enterprise-wide transformation.

View Criteria

Grid Infrastructure, Safety & Resilience

Edith Clarke Award

Recognizing infrastructure expansion, grid-hardening, safety, and operational resilience.

View Criteria

AI, Digital Grid & Cyber Defense

Nikola Tesla Award

Celebrating AI, predictive analytics, and proactive cyber defense software solutions.

View Criteria

Water, Hydropower & Resource Stewardship

Nora Stanton Barney Award

Showcasing achievements across hydroelectric power, municipal water utilities, and the water-energy nexus.

View Criteria

Clean Baseload, Gas Generation & Load Shaping

Lise Meitner Award

Highlighting advanced baseload power innovation and smart load shaping solutions.

View Criteria
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Leadership in Innovation

George Westinghouse Award

George Westinghouse championed alternating current and transformed the global energy landscape through bold corporate strategy.

This award honors an executive leader or enterprise initiative that demonstrates visionary corporate strategy, culture change, and organizational transformation across the utility sector.

Eligible initiatives may include:
  • Enterprise-wide utility modernization strategies and organizational transformations.
  • Multi-operating-company innovation programs and cross-departmental alignment.
  • Bold regulatory or business-model innovation that unlocks new customer or grid value.
  • Executive-led change management frameworks accelerating technology adoption.

Evaluation Focus: Nominees should clearly demonstrate visionary leadership, organizational transformation, and measurable business or cultural impact. Both individual executive and enterprise/consortium nominations will be evaluated based on demonstrated outcomes, leadership influence, and collaborative impact.

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Grid Infrastructure, Safety & Resilience

Edith Clarke Award

Edith Clarke pioneered mathematical grid modeling and laid the foundation for modern power systems.

This award recognizes physical infrastructure, transmission/distribution expansion, grid-hardening, DER integration, operational safety, and field workforce protection that strengthen power system reliability and worker safety.

Eligible initiatives may include:
  • Advanced conductor deployments, DLR, and capacity expansion technologies.
  • Substation modernization, undergrounding, and physical grid-hardening programs.
  • Utility-scale VPPs, energy storage deployment, and automated DER orchestration.
  • AI-driven vegetation management, satellite/drone hazard ID, and wildfire mitigation.
  • Advanced gas pipeline safety, leak detection, and pressure monitoring technologies.
  • Wearable worker safety technology, robotics, and high-voltage protection systems.

Evaluation Focus: Nominees should demonstrate technical novelty, measurable reliability/resilience/safety gains, and clear potential for replication across grid operations and field workforce practices.

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AI, Digital Grid & Cyber Defense

Nikola Tesla Award

Nikola Tesla's revolutionary architectures laid the groundwork for the modern grid.

This award honors deep-tech software, machine learning applications, predictive analytics, and pioneering cybersecurity architectures that protect critical utility infrastructure and transform decision-making from reactive to proactive.

Eligible initiatives may include:
  • AI-driven wildfire, storm, and extreme-weather early-warning intelligence.
  • Computer vision and satellite/drone analytics for automated asset inspection.
  • Predictive maintenance platforms for transformers, feeders, and heavy assets.
  • Zero-trust security frameworks implemented across utility SCADA and OT environments.
  • Automated cyber threat detection, monitoring, and incident response platforms.
  • Secure supply-chain and device-authentication protocols for smart grid assets.

Evaluation Focus: Nominees should demonstrate technological boldness, predictive accuracy, and actionable operational integration into existing utility workflows.

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Water, Hydropower & Resource Stewardship

Nora Stanton Barney Award

Nora Stanton Barney, one of the first U.S. women to earn a civil engineering degree, shaped modern municipal water and aqueduct infrastructure.

This award celebrates innovations across hydroelectric power generation, municipal water utilities, dam/aqueduct modernization, and the Water-Energy nexus.

Eligible initiatives may include:
  • Hydroelectric asset modernization, pumped-storage expansion, and turbine efficiency upgrades.
  • Advanced leak-detection, AMI software, and smart municipal water delivery platforms.
  • Environmental remediation, water-quality chemistry, and watershed protection initiatives.
  • Hydro-flow predictive analytics and generation dispatch algorithms.

Evaluation Focus: Nominees should demonstrate resource efficiency, hydraulic or environmental performance improvements, and sustainable infrastructure stewardship.

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Clean Baseload, Gas Generation & Load Shaping

Lise Meitner Award

Lise Meitner co-discovered nuclear fission, paving the way for continuous, carbon-free baseload power.

This award honors advancements in baseload power innovation (Nuclear, Advanced Gas, Geothermal, Hydrogen) OR consumer software (TOU, Demand Response, EE) that shapes load to match clean generation.

Eligible initiatives may include:
  • Advanced nuclear (SMR/fission), engineered geothermal, and high-efficiency thermal generation.
  • Gas utility decarbonization, hydrogen blending, and carbon capture (CCUS) projects.
  • Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing engines, behavioral energy efficiency, and load-shaping platforms.
  • EV managed charging and residential automated demand response programs.

Evaluation Focus: Nominees should demonstrate clear carbon-abatement impact, continuous baseload availability, or measurable customer demand-flexibility outcomes.

A utility executive giving a presentation on innovation leadership

Who Should Apply?

Eligibility & Requirements

Nominations are open to anyone advancing innovative solutions that strengthen a clean, affordable, and resilient power system. We encourage utilities, technology providers, and industry partners across the sector to put their work forward.

  • Target Nominees

    Fortnightly Top Innovators nominees may include individuals, individual companies, or multi-stakeholder consortia:

    • Utilities & System Operators: IOUs, public power authorities, municipal utilities, electric cooperatives, transmission operators, and gas distribution utilities
    • Technology Pioneers & Startups: Technology providers, software platforms, hardware manufacturers, and venture-backed energy startups (including EIP portfolio companies)
    • Consortia & Partnerships: Utilities, technology vendors, research institutions, engineering firms, regulators, or community stakeholders
    • Individual Leaders: CEOs, CTOs, CISOs, Chief Engineers, and program directors driving transformational change

  • Timeframe

    Projects and initiatives active within the last 18 months (January 2025 – June 2026).

  • Submission Deadline

    All nominations must be submitted by August 26, 2026.

  • Event Attendance & Acceptance

    All applicants are invited to attend. Finalists are required to attend. An executive representative from the winning company or the individual awardee must accept in person at the ceremony. For global nominees, a U.S.-based representative may accept on their behalf.

How to Apply

The Nomination Process

Submitting a nomination is straightforward. Nominations are open now and are submitted through our secure online form.

1. Prepare Your Materials

Gather the evidence: how your nominee demonstrated innovation, how the work can be replicated, current status, and challenges overcome.

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2. Complete the Online Form

Access the form via this page. You'll answer qualitative questions mapped directly to the judging criteria. The form must be completed in a single session, so prepare your materials in advance.

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3. Submit & Review

Submit before the deadline. We'll notify finalists directly; winners are revealed the night of the ceremony.

Submissions Close: Aug 26, 2026 Ceremony: October 29, 2026
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The Winning Factors

Selection Process & Criteria

Nominations are evaluated on four core criteria — assessed relative to each category's intended purpose — on a 100-point scale.

Business Impact & ROI (30 pts)

Quantifiable real-world value: cost savings, capacity added, uptime improved, emissions reduced, safety incidents prevented. The strongest nominations lead with hard numbers, not statements of intent.

Evaluation Focus

Anecdotal Highly Measurable

Technological Boldness (30 pts)

A novel, forward-looking, or paradigm-shifting approach over incremental improvement. Excellence means a first-of-kind move, not a faster version of what already exists.

Evaluation Focus

Incremental Paradigm-Shifting

Scalability & Viability (20 pts)

How readily the model or technology can be replicated across other utilities, regions, or markets. Top nominations show replication already underway.

Evaluation Focus

Niche Use Case Highly Scalable

Category Alignment (20 pts)

Direct fit with the category's strategic focus and the spirit of its historical-figure anchor. The best nominations map clearly to one category rather than hedging across several.

Evaluation Focus

Loose Fit Perfect Alignment

The Judging Panel

Energy executive leaders, technical subject-matter experts, and Public Utilities Fortnightly editorial leadership ensure a fair, impartial, and consistent evaluation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about the nomination process? Find answers below, or contact our team.

No. All utilities, industry partners, vendors, and individuals are welcome to apply. Membership is not a prerequisite for nomination or selection.
No. The form must be completed in a single session. We strongly recommend drafting your answers in a separate document first, then pasting them in.
Yes. You may nominate different projects across different categories, or multiple distinct projects within one category. Don't submit the same project in more than one category — choose the one that best fits its primary impact.
Presented by Public Utilities Fortnightly, the awards recognize the organizations and leaders shaping the utility industry through practical, high-impact, commercial-grade solutions — honoring measurable business impact, technological boldness, scalability, and category excellence.
Nominations for 2026 close August 26, 2026. The panel reviews submissions after the deadline, and finalists are contacted with next steps ahead of the ceremony.
Individual leaders (CEOs, CTOs, CISOs, Chief Engineers, program directors), individual companies (IOUs, public power authorities, municipal utilities, cooperatives, transmission operators, gas distribution utilities), technology pioneers, startups, regulators, policymakers, or multi-stakeholder consortia.
Through the official online form, which maps directly to the 100-point judging rubric. We recommend downloading the PDF preparation guide, drafting offline, and pasting your responses into the form.
A 100-point scale across four criteria: Business Impact & ROI (30), Technological Boldness (30), Scalability & Viability (20), and Category Alignment (20).
The form includes category focus descriptions, eligible-initiative lists, and target metrics. All nominations must be fully commercialized or physically deployed — conceptual or pre-commercial work will not be considered. Each nomination should focus on the single category where it aligns most strongly.
From the five category winners, the ceremony audience casts a live, real-time vote to name one recipient the Top Innovator of the Year — a first for the program.
October 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
An executive representative from the winning company or the individual awardee must accept in person. For global nominees, a U.S.-based representative may accept on their behalf.
On-stage recognition in Washington, D.C., dedicated Public Utilities Fortnightly editorial coverage, and year-round visibility across industry communications and digital platforms.
The project, technology, or strategy must have been actively deployed within the last 18 months (January 2025 – June 2026).
Yes. Self-nominations from utilities, technology vendors, and project teams are encouraged.
Registration and ticketing details for the ceremony will be shared closer to the event. Watch for official PUF communications on ticket and table availability.

Ready to put your work forward?

Nominations are open. Review the categories and submit your project to showcase your organization's achievements in Washington, D.C. this October.

Start Your Nomination

Need technical help? Contact awards@fortnightly.com

About Public Utilities Fortnightly

Public Utilities Fortnightly (PUF) is the leading platform for the perspectives of utility and regulatory leaders. A member association since 2016 and founded nearly a century ago, PUF counts roughly 250 utilities among its members — along with industry organizations, regulators, government agencies, vendors, and advocacy groups — who shape the industry's debates on sustainability, resilience, and affordability through full-length Q&As, member essays, a print and digital magazine read by more than 10,000 leaders, and year-round convenings.

About Smart Electric Power Alliance

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is a national nonprofit leading the future of clean, affordable, resilient power. With nearly 1,000 members spanning utilities of every business model, state commissions and energy offices, consumer advocates and the technology companies reshaping the grid, SEPA produces research, convenes the full ecosystem, and delivers practical guidance that informs some of the most consequential decisions being made in the energy sector right now. Learn more at sepapower.org.

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