EDIST Continues its Position as a Premier Forum for Electricity Distribution Community
January 26, 2026
By John Kerr
EDIST 2026 confirmed that Ontario’s local distribution companies (LDCs) are shifting decisively from incremental upgrades to full system transformation, with grid modernization and data-driven decision-making now central to utility strategy.
Held January 20–22 at The Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, the Electricity Distributors Association’s flagship conference and tradeshow again demonstrated its role as the premier forum for Canada’s electricity distribution community, drawing utility executives, engineers, planners, IT specialists, and key technology and equipment suppliers.
Under the banner “Powering Growth: Building the Energy System of the Future,” sessions and panel discussions highlighted the pressures and opportunities created by electrification, distributed energy resources, and community-level decarbonization, positioning LDCs as active enablers of the energy transition rather than passive wires companies. Across multiple content streams, speakers explored practical challenges such as connection backlogs, planning for rapid load growth, integrating DERs, and securing the talent and capital required to modernize networks, while IT, OT, and cybersecurity emerged as core operational concerns as utilities seek to turn metering, monitoring, and power quality data into actionable intelligence.
On the tradeshow floor, an expanded roster of exhibitors showcased metering, automation, protection and control, cable, switchgear, asset management, and analytics solutions, with a clear emphasis on interoperability, resilience, and lifecycle value tailored to LDC realities.
For the POWER & Telecom readership, EDIST 2026 underscored that success in the decade ahead will hinge on how effectively utilities align engineering, operations, IT, and supplier partners around coherent grid-modernization roadmaps, especially in areas such as connection management, DER integration, digital substations, and data-enabled planning where Canadian LDCs are seeking both innovation and proven examples from peers.
