Initiatives and Investments by Our Members
Steve Hauser is CEO of the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies.
Looking back on 2025, and the way in which demand and load growth came to dominate the headlines, it is almost impossible to remember that the electric power industry is only a few years removed from a roughly two-decade period of flat demand growth. Seemingly overnight, we began facing a rapidly accelerating electrification rush and a hard press for vast new load demand from widespread electrification efforts, AI data centers, and new energy technology manufacturing facilities.
AEIC is proactively focused on supporting our member utilities in navigating the unprecedented pace and complexity of load growth across the country. At our one hundred forty-first Annual Meeting this past November, senior utility leaders and industry partners gathered to share load growth challenges and to discuss innovative ways to scale infrastructure to meet growing energy demands while integrating bulk generation, growing demand for natural gas, and distributed energy resources. These industry experts addressed grid resilience and futureproofing for a 2035-ready system and examined the financial and technological barriers to scaling utility operations.