As the political environment in Washington DC changes on Monday, January 20, 2025, one of the previous administration’s priorities will not change: the demand for electricity and the need for a safe, reliable electricity grid to meet growing demand. Nationwide electricity demand is expected to grow 4.7 percent in the US over the next five years, outpacing previous consensus estimates that predicted an increase of 2.6 percent. The surge in demand comes from expansion in the country’s industrial and manufacturing capacity and the continued electrification of the economy, including the need to power artificial intelligence (AI), AI-dedicated data centers, and crypto-mining operations. This growth is unprecedented—as over the last two decades growth has been close to zero. As published in numerous reports over the past few years and in this column, the existing electricity grid infrastructure is not prepared to meet this increased demand. Significantly more power generation and doubling or tripling of investment in grid infrastructure are needed to meet the near five-fold increase in energy demand.
DeCotis, Paul A. (February 2025). “Assuring Energy Infrastructure Reliability and Resiliency”. Climate and Energy Journal. Vol. 41 No. 7, ©2025. Wiley Periodicals, LLC. a Wiley company.
