Guidehouse
Nathan White is a director at Guidehouse with fifteen years of experience advising utility and energy companies on strategies for meeting the evolving needs of the energy industry. Over the course of his career, Nathan has worked across multiple sectors and functions, including ECP (engineering, procurement, and construction), finance, technology, and regulatory and risk management, with a focus on delivering transformational enterprise initiatives. He partners with clients to navigate complex regulatory environments, optimize operations, and implement cutting-edge technologies to address the needs of today’s energy landscape.
How should utilities collaborate with states and local communities to meet future load growth and resiliency needs?
Nathan White: With the grid’s role evolving, utilities have an opportunity to work with state and local communities to drive economic growth from data center and manufacturing development. A resilient grid must be able to manage extreme events, with every dollar in grid hardening estimated to save four to six in restoration and economic impact – ensuring downtimes are shorter and commerce can resume quickly.
Thus, as Guidehouse outlined in its article about creating a successful decarb hub, state and local communities can be force multipliers for addressing some of the utility industry’s biggest challenges through both one-time and ongoing capital incentives. Stakeholders must be engaged early and often.
Public and private entities must align on proactive measures to enable a collaborative framework that cuts through red tape and bureaucracy and establishes clear lines of communication for accelerating growth and deployment. Ultimately, collaboration between energy providers and state and local stakeholders is essential for dismantling historical silos, aligning incentives, and accelerating data center deployment.
Steps must be taken to protect significant investments in load growth from extreme events. In 2024, there were twenty-seven disasters costing billions of dollars, which resulted in 182.7 billion dollars in damages, with Hurricanes Helene and Milton costing 78.7 billion dollars and 34.3 billion dollars respectively. The direct damage was significant, and the indirect economic impact, along with rapidly increasing insurance costs, underscores the critical importance of resilience measures.
The challenges ahead can be daunting, but by collaborating with state and local partners and engaging stakeholders transparently, utilities can transform the grid into a platform for economic vitality.
