Accelerated achievement of technical milestones in recent years has prompted ambitious timelines for fusion pilot plant development and eventual deployment of commercially viable fusion power plants. As fusion energy technologies mature and transition from experimental, to demonstration, to commercial stages of development, early awareness of future owner-operator requirements can inform preliminary designs. This proactive alignment can mitigate potentially insurmountable barriers if these requirements are not defined and considered until late in the design and demonstration process. In 1982, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) published the report AP-2254, “Utility Requirements for Fusion,” which details a list of utility requirements for fusion energy options, the definition of these requirements, and each requirement’s relative importance to the utility industry at the time. Of the 23 final requirements considered after survey and workshop activities with utilities, four were indicated as vital to fusion power plant acceptability: Plant Capital Cost, Financial Liability, Plant Safety, and Licensability. Over a decade following the publishing of “Utility Requirements for Fusion,” a 1994 EPRI fusion panel underscored key criteria that fusion plants must meet to be acceptable to utilities, including competitive economics (to compete with already deployed technologies), positive public perception (in terms of acceptance of fusion as a safe and clean energy technology and trust in fusion’s ability to serve as a practical and reliable energy generation option), and regulatory simplicity (via regulation appropriately determined by the characteristics of the technology). Despite these requirements and criteria now reaching over 40 and 30 years in age, respectively, they are still representative of goals a commercial fusion system may need to meet before widespread adoption and deployment today. However, as global energy systems, the utility industry, and the fusion landscape have changed drastically since the 1980s and 1990s, there is a need for an updated set of owner-operator requirements for fusion to properly inform technology development. As part of its Fusion Energy Strategic Program, EPRI is collaborating with utility and energy company stakeholders alongside the fusion community to develop an updated understanding of end-user (customer) expectations for fusion energy systems. This effort seeks to prompt early engagement between future owner-operators and fusion technology developers to align on a clear set of requirements and enable successful and commercialization efforts on timescales needed to support global energy needs and decarbonization goals.