Showcasing the 98th Edison Award Finalists: Recognizing Innovation and Excellence in Grid Operations
The AES Corporation, Baltimore Gas & Electric, and Duke Energy have been selected as finalists for the 2026 Edison Award.
Since 1922, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has presented the Edison Award, which annually recognizes a member electric company for leadership in innovation and excellence in grid operations.
An independent panel of reviewers evaluated nominations for the 2026 Edison Award and selected The AES Corporation, Baltimore Gas & Electric, and Duke Energy as finalists.
“This year’s Edison Award finalists exemplify how EEI’s member companies are committed to developing and deploying innovative technologies and solutions that are enhancing grid reliability while lowering operating expenses,” said EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney. “Our members are meeting this critical moment in our industry through smart investments and a continued focus on powering the energy of every day for the customers and communities we serve.”
The winner of the 98th Edison Award will be selected by a panel of former electric company chief executives and then announced during EEI 2026, the association’s annual conference and thought leadership forum, to be held June 2-4 in Las Vegas.
Read on to learn more about this year’s finalists.
The AES Corporation
- Strengthening Workplace Safety With Haven Safety AI
Crew and customer safety is a top priority for the electric power industry, and The AES Corporation has significantly strengthened workplace safety through its partnership with Haven Safety AI.
The new AI tool, which AES co-developed, takes large amounts of safety incident data and turns it into rapid, evidence-based root cause analysis (RCA) findings within hours of an incident occurring. This has reduced the amount of time AES employees spend on RCA investigations by 80 percent.
The platform’s insights also inform proactive, corrective actions across high-risk field work, which have improved the company’s prevention and operational resilience. In addition to providing incident-specific data and analysis, the platform also evaluates the data for leading indicators, emerging risks, and pathways to system-wide corrective actions.
By utilizing Haven Safety AI, AES is spending less time on incident reports and more time in the field advancing safer, smarter, and more efficient energy operations.
Baltimore Gas & Electric
- Improving Reliability Through Automatic Restoration Capabilities
Over the past six years, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) has deployed motor-operated switchgear (MOS) into its auto-restoration system (ARS), expanding the system’s capabilities to underground feeders and addressing a gap in BGE’s distribution automation strategy.
MOS offers a cost-effective solution to automatically restore customers on underground feeders, which make up 66 percent of BGE’s primary distribution lines. Between 2020-2025, BGE installed 144 MOS devices onto its distribution system to monitor the technology’s performance and impact on customer reliability. After a successful field pilot, BGE incorporated the MOS devices into its ARS—a pivotal integration that created customized feeder configurations and automated restoration algorithms. The technology also seamlessly integrates with both new and existing infrastructure.
BGE’s MOS deployment has avoided more than 5,000 service interruptions for customers in the past year, underscoring how BGE has utilized these cost-effective, “self-healing” tools to improve customer reliability.
Duke Energy
- DeBary Hydrogen Production and Storage System
Duke Energy’s DeBary Hydrogen Production and Storage System is a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end facility that produces, stores, and combusts up to 100-percent green hydrogen generated from solar energy.
Powered by Duke Energy’s DeBary solar facility, two 1-megawatt (MW) electrolyzers split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is captured and stored on-site—then used as on-demand fuel for a peaking combustion turbine upgraded to run on a natural gas-hydrogen blend today, with the capability for 100-percent hydrogen combustion.
In December 2025, DeBary set a world record—generating 50 MW using 100-percent green hydrogen combustion—proving the technical feasibility of this approach and setting a new benchmark for the industry. By converting excess solar energy into stored hydrogen, Duke Energy’s DeBary system transforms Florida sunshine into on-demand power that strengthens grid reliability and helps keep costs as low as possible for customers.