Clarum Advisors
Molly Podolefsky is a Ph.D. economist and leader in the energy and sustainability industry with experience spanning decarbonization, the utilities and energy sector, finance and investment and business management. As a Managing Director with Clarum Advisors, she leverages her knowledge and experience working with utilities, startups, corporations and funds in the energy transition space.
The U.S. electric grid is entering an era in which demand for transmission capacity is growing faster than the infrastructure needed to deliver it. Explosive load growth from data centers, electrification, domestic manufacturing, and renewable energy development is converging with aging transmission assets, heightened reliability expectations, and the decade-long timelines often required to permit and construct new transmission facilities.
At the same time, utilities and regulators face mounting pressure to maintain affordable electric service as customers shoulder the costs of an increasingly complex energy transition. According to the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, improving the utilization of existing transmission infrastructure represents one of the fastest and lowest-cost opportunities to expand grid capacity, often delivering benefits in months rather than the years — or even decades — required to develop new transmission corridors.
Rather than viewing grid expansion and affordability as competing priorities, utilities increasingly have an opportunity to advance both simultaneously by extracting more value from the transmission assets already in service.