The study is part of the Carolinas Transmission Planning Collaborative’s effort to identify future transmission needs before specific projects are selected. Rather than relying on one demand forecast, the company develops multiple scenarios and asks which transmission investments still make sense if the future changes. Several of the largest projects establish high-capacity corridors designed to increase transfer capability, relieve transmission constraints and accommodate changing generation patterns and forecasted load growth. While one utility discounts a 22.8 GW pipeline of prospective customers before building its load forecast, another models 16 hypothetical 100 MW to 500 MW customers to test where transmission may be needed.

One hyperscaler, for example, has embedded PJM grid telemetry into its scheduling systems and partnered with two utilities to reduce AI processing workloads during periods of grid stress.34 At least two states now have LDES requirements totaling more than 2.75 GW.16 Utilities are also procuring 8-to-10-hour storage to address reliability gaps during high-demand seasons and reduce unused renewable energy generation.17 While this can relieve peak stress, it is not a one-for-one substitute for firm generation like gas or nuclear. The surge was driven by artificial intelligence training workloads, alongside electrification in transportation and industry. Mitchell Ferman covered energy and the economy from 2020 to 2022, based in Houston.

The injection of investment will bolster construction of “more energy- and cost-efficient infrastructure” to meet surging electricity demand,” EEI said. U.S. electricity generation from 2014 to 2024 climbed 3% year-over-year in 2024—the largest annual increase in five years—reflecting rising power demand across sectors. Last year, power generation in the U.S. jumped 3% to reach 4,304,038 GWh—marking the “largest annual jump in five years,” it notes. The natural gas capacity additions at the Intermountain Power Project will replace 1,800 MW of coal-fired capacity at the plant, which is scheduled to be retired in July.

Decades of Innovation Shaping Today’s Grid

• EEI suggests 91 GW of new generating capacity is currently under construction, and an additional 488 GW is planned or has been proposed for the next five years.
• While O&M spending has “benefitted from productivity gains driven by smart-grid investment,” O&M costs rose for 31 of 42 companies that reported the line item.
• “The employment of this backup generation is expected to reduce stress on the grid,” the DOE said.
• As reported by Canary Media, Dominion Energy is proposing new gas-fired power needed to maintain reliability due to data center growth in Virginia — the world’s largest data center hub.
• Modernizing the grid to make it “smarter” and more resilient through the use of cutting-edge technologies, equipment, and controls that communicate and work together to deliver electricity more reliably and efficiently can greatly reduce the frequency and duration of power outages, reduce storm impacts, and restore service faster when outages occur.
• Its transmission appendix examines whether the future grid will remain reliable once those customers arrive.

NERC now forecasts that summer peak demand will grow by 224 GW over the next 10 years— an increase of more than 69% compared with its 2024 predictions. “Electricity peak demand and energy growth forecasts over the 10-year assessment period continue to climb higher than at any point in the past two decades,” the report said. However, none were expected to experience peak summer or winter shortfalls—the key criterion for high risk classification. The 2025 assessment found that 13 of 23 assessment areas may face https://alcitynews.com/alexander-anatolyevich-romanov-a-key-figure-in-oil-industry.html resource challenges by the end of the decade. With peak demand set to surge over the next decade, NERC warns of potential grid shortfalls as early as 2028. Accenture was named by AWS as Global Consulting Winner in Energy Competency, helping clients build and implement advanced AWS-powered solutions across the value chain.

• Power companies are building computing infrastructure that blends edge, cloud, and on-premises capabilities (figure 2).35 Edge AI—from drones to substation sensors—enables millisecond-level decisions.
• Much of the higher estimate is due to data center development, which is expected to account for 90 gigawatts of the new peak demand growth.
• Also, estimated peak load increased to about 153,000 MW from 150,000 MW, he said.
• Most power plants run on natural gas, an industry that is regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission, a three-member board elected statewide.

Energy requirements and AI hinge on the rapid buildout of data centers, the grid capacity to power them, and a manufacturing base to support both. Interconnection policies are an essential piece of a supportive state-level regulatory policy framework addressing how project developers will interconnect distributed generation systems to the grid. National Grid, which operates the transmission network in England and Wales, says that proposed data centers representing more than 30 gigawatts of power demand are awaiting connection to its grid, equal to two-thirds the peak demand of Great Britain. Tech companies have continued to raise their spending on building and equipping data centers, but there is evidence that construction is lagging and projects are hitting roadblocks, including permitting delays, growing local opposition or bottlenecks around gas turbines, transformers and skilled labor. FERC told grid operators to respond within 30 days on how they will ensure there is adequate power supplies for new and future data centers, and within 60 days on plans to integrate large power users in line with the new guidelines.

Rather than treating announced load as forecasted load, they filter prospective customers, test multiple futures, and evaluate transmission investments that remain valuable under a range of outcomes. With billions of dollars in transmission investments at stake, utilities must decide which AI projects are real enough to build the grid around. Weather information supports that decision by showing the conditions crews and equipment face. The goal is to reduce the risk where weather https://autonow.net/restyling-or-attempt-to-play-on-feelings.html and vegetation are most likely to create an outage. Hyper-local data gives operations teams more confidence in that early decision.