Optimism and Pragmatism
Rachel Bryant is the Executive Editor of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
It wasn’t long ago that growth in the utility sector was a gentle and predictable curve. It was a steady one percent crawl that we could basically set our watches by. For decades, our primary challenge was just maintaining the status quo while the system managed to stay in a (relatively) comfortable equilibrium.
Those days, it seems, are officially over.
At home, I am seeing a similar pattern with my own son as he enters adolescence. My once predictable toddler will no doubt be looking down at me at about the same speed that our bulk electric system is experiencing its own sudden growth spurt. We have entered a period of accelerating demand driven by the AI boom, hyperscale data centers, and the electrification of our homes and transit.
From the high-rises of Manhattan to the rural stretches of Virginia, the scale of the requests is staggering. We are seeing load requests that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, with some individual projects now representing half the load of an entire state. Even in areas without mega loads, the concentrated clusters of chargers and all-electric buildings require localized planning that feels like trying to keep a teenager in shoes that actually fit.