T&D Grid

Clarum Advisors talked with an array of industry leaders – utilities, data centers, developers, and vendors – to tease apart fact from fiction. In this article, we separate whether data center costs reach other consumers from the question of how, addressing both to inform solutions.

“Australia and Great Britain offer two complementary, if not directly comparable, lessons for U.S. utilities and regulators.”

Puerto Rico offers a timely setting for the NARUC 2026 Annual Meeting and Education Conference in November, serving as a real-world case study for utility infrastructure reliability and resilience nearly a decade after major hurricanes devastated the island. The conference will address challenges of affordability, rapid infrastructure deployment, meeting customer needs, and much more.

“Japanese energy policy rests on three pillars: reliability and energy security, economic efficiency, and environmental sustainability. We must balance these three pillars while recognizing that Japan is an electrically isolated island importing fossil fuels.”

“National carbon goals are actively under discussion right now, and that is important, but they are not the primary driver of new clean electricity projects. The main driver is rapidly increasing demand for electricity across all sectors.”

PUF talked with two prominent energy leaders who offered vital international perspectives on how market structures, geography, and policy choices shape power system architecture. Together, these conversations provide actionable insights into grid resilience, capacity adequacy, and load integration.

“A flexible resource only counts if we design the market, the rate, and the program that lets it participate – which is exactly where the work is, and it is well underway.”

“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.”

Utility executives from leading energy companies discussed the critical investments needed to deliver clean, reliable, and dispatchable power in an era of rising demand and decarbonization goals. This panel at the NARUC Summer Policy Summit explored emerging technologies, project economics, and regulatory challenges.