The second panel of The Games Week (2-6 March, 2026), hosted by the Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at USC Viterbi, focused on the systems that make large-scale events possible: electricity, water and the infrastructure that binds them together. Addressing these interconnected challenges highlights the critical role of civil and environmental engineering in advancing resilient, sustainable infrastructure for cities worldwide.
The discussion was moderated by Kelly Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC Viterbi and former assistant director for energy systems innovation at the U.S. government’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Sanders’ research centers on reducing the environmental impacts of providing energy and water, identifying tensions between climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and anticipating the effects of climate change on energy systems.
As such, she is ideally placed to assess how to use the deadline of 2028 to accelerate long-term infrastructure transformation – a question tackled from multiple angles by the featured panelists: Janisse Quiñones, former CEO and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP); Holly West, head of energy for LA28; Vik Trehan, vice president of transmission and substation operations at Southern California Edison; and Stephanie Hallinan, associate director of U.S market transformation & development at the U.S. Green Building Council.
Coordinating utilities across a complex region
LADWP, the municipal utility of the City of Los Angeles providing water and electricity, serves approximately four million customers and operates the largest municipal utility in the United States. For LA28, its role extends beyond routine service. How to coordinate power and water delivery across dozens of simultaneous venues in a region that is already managing rapid electrification and aggressive decarbonization targets?
Quiñones described the creation of a Games Energy Council that brings together LADWP, Southern California Edison and other regional utilities to align planning and reliability standards across jurisdictions. “We are the coordinating utility that ensures we’re all doing the same thing to provide reliable, clean and resilient power during the Games,” she explained, emphasizing that the effort is regional rather than city-bound.
Equally significant is the establishment of the first Games Water Council in Olympic history. Several venues will require temporary aquatic infrastructure in facilities not originally designed for that purpose. Coordinating water supply and system resilience at those sites adds another layer of engineering complexity.
These preparations are unfolding alongside LADWP’s commitment to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The utility is currently at 64 percent clean energy. Maintaining reliability during a global event, while integrating increasing levels of renewable generation, further compresses ambitious timelines designed to outpace the impact of climate change.
Building backup systems at unprecedented scale
As discussed in the first panel of The Games Week, the operational model of LA28 relies heavily on existing venues rather than large-scale new construction. That strategy reduces the long-term financial risk associated with capital-intensive builds, but it shifts the burden onto temporary infrastructure and operational systems. The engineering challenge lies not in building new permanent infrastructure, but in designing systems that are robust, interoperable and removable without leaving stranded assets behind.
As Head of Energy for LA28, Holly West is responsible for end-to-end energy delivery at every Games facility. Her team receives grid power from regional utilities, installs layers of redundancy (robust backup systems added to the power setup) and aims to ensure uninterrupted service to broadcast systems, security operations, ticketing platforms and venue logistics.
“This will be the largest temporary power overlay in the history of the Games,” West noted, underscoring the scale of temporary distribution, backup generation and uninterruptible power supply systems that must be integrated into facilities never designed for continuous, simultaneous operations during LA28.
A grid in transition
Southern California Edison’s preparations intersect with California’s broader energy transition; LA28 serves as a near-term performance benchmark for infrastructure that must ultimately support California’s 2045 goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from electricity.
Trehan oversees 24/7 transmission and substation operations in a grid that is absorbing growing volumes of renewable generation. Integrating solar and wind reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but it also introduces variability that must be balanced in real time.
“This is a significant moment in history for energy infrastructure,” Trehan told the audience, framing the current period as a pivotal phase in grid modernization rather than a routine upgrade cycle.
In advance of LA28, Edison is accelerating projects that strengthen transmission serving Games venues, conducting preemptive inspections and deploying sensors capable of detecting anomalies before they escalate. Machine learning and predictive analytics are becoming standard tools in maintaining reliability within a decarbonizing system.
Embedding sustainability standards
Hallinan broadened the discussion beyond grid operations to the policy frameworks that shape how infrastructure is designed and evaluated. Representing the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), she described how certification programs, advocacy and education work together to embed sustainability criteria into development decisions.
“We aim to integrate sustainability via three different branches: advocacy, education and products,” Hallinan explained. “Our goal is to meet people where they are and help move the market forward.”
Through programs such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification and policy engagement at federal, state and local levels, USGBC helps translate environmental goals into measurable standards for buildings and infrastructure. Hallinan noted that the organization’s advocacy work has also helped preserve widely used programs such as ENERGY STAR, ensuring that tools for improving energy performance remain available nationwide.
For events such as LA28, these frameworks influence how venues are retrofitted and how sustainability outcomes are measured after the Games conclude. In that sense, Hallinan suggested that the most durable legacy of the Olympics may come not only from physical infrastructure, but from the standards that guide how cities build and operate it.
Infrastructure as legacy
In short, the Games function as both deadline and catalyst – compressing decision cycles while clarifying the need for durable, low-carbon infrastructure. The panel underscored that LA28 is not an isolated event layered onto a static city. It is unfolding within an energy system already undergoing rapid transformation and within a region confronting wildfire risk, heat stress and growing electricity demand from electrification.
Next, we’ll be discussing how LA’s transportation systems will withstand the strain of moving millions of visitors across the city – could this be the turning point when LA shifts from the city of cars to a city celebrated for public transportation?
Published on March 23rd, 2026
Last updated on March 24th, 2026