T&D Grid

“What has changed is that it is no longer sufficient to plan exclusively from the top down. We must now plan from both the top down and the bottom up.”

“Our stance remains focused on reducing unnecessary work to streamline the process. Shorter schedules generally lead to lower costs, which ultimately benefits ratepayers through the broader market.”

“We try to strike a balance by looking for investments that bring multiple benefits, asking if an expenditure adds resiliency and reliability while also enabling a cleaner local environment.”

The electric utility industry has moved past the era of predictable one percent growth. As we reach the middle of 2026, however, the question is no longer whether new load is coming, but rather how providers can build fast enough to meet the demand. This month, we spoke with eight leaders currently navigating unprecedented growth challenges to discuss the strategies and infrastructure we all need to modernize the grid.

While meeting today’s load growth is an incredibly big ask, we have the right technology and talent to get it done. By working together with a proactive, unified strategy, we can build the modernized grid this country actually needs.

“More than 140 years later, the industry is still working together to solve problems and share knowledge. It still needs a place where operators, engineers, planners, leaders, and stewards of the grid can come together.”

“What is often missing is not data, but memory. Utilities generate enormous amounts of operational information during major events, yet much of the reasoning behind decisions on what was tried, what worked, and what failed, fades quickly once the event passes.”

“Efficiency and customer experience benefits are hard to quantify, and regulators are increasingly wary of qualitative arguments as affordability becomes a dominant concern.”

“Until a solution is determined and implemented, dramatically increasing demand leads to dramatically increasing whole­sale prices for capacity, energy, and transmission, which is generally passed through to retail customers.”

“A central concern for regulators is that existing cost allocation frameworks are ill-suited for such sudden spikes in capacity needs, creating a risk of unwarranted subsidies from existing customers to data centers.”