Transmission

“This pioneering project shows that we no longer need to guess or debate whether a proposed data center will get built. We can wait until it’s mostly built (so we can be surer it’ll get finished and run), then build its off-grid power supply on nearby cheap land.”

“The data center load under contract will more than double the peak demand of Indiana Michigan Power Company over the next five years. This is a terrific opportunity but also presents a significant challenge in terms of grid upgrades, increased generation capacity requirements, and capital outlays.”

“Utilities are challenged with managing the higher prices for energy, increased infrastructure to move the electricity, keeping it all reliable, and then somehow trying to figure out how to make it somewhat affordable for people. It’s a complex puzzle that we have to work through.”

Reconductoring with High-Performance Conductors: “In 2024, Salt River Project completed an eight-and-a-half mile advanced reconductoring project in Phoenix. The project allowed SRP to maintain the fifty-year remaining service life of existing structures while reducing outage-related expenses and still achieving the significant capacity increase needed for growing demand.”

“Why would developers pursue sites they may never build on? The answer lies in how this market operates.”

"Can we design rates in a way that allocates this higher cost of capital to the class that caused it — a large load tariff design with an eleven percent ROR, and a residential tariff designed with a seven percent ROR, for example?”

“For states deep into load growth, and even for states not yet overwhelmed with new demand, it is worth considering the following policies as part of a sensible framework to facilitate economic growth while protecting customers and reliability in the near term.”

These two articles focus on load growth as both a challenge and opportunity for the continued evolution of the U.S. power sector. The series presents innovative solutions to meet this new era of load growth in a way that is more resilient, affordable, and clean.

“The Texas grid is just always changing. I would say, in recent years, it’s getting meaningfully better in a lot of ways. I describe the Texas grid today using a new model that I’m calling ERCOT 4.0. 4.0 is where we are today, with a few significant characteristics. One is significant and accelerating renewable growth on the grid. Intermittent inverter-based resources are the fastest growing in the resource mix on the grid.”

“While some tweaks are necessary due to the present speed and concentration of load additions, wholesale jettisoning of tested practices likely brings many unintended consequences even – or perhaps, especially – for those customers regulators are seeking to protect.”