Power Demand

As global electricity demand surges 40% by 2035 and warming projections worsen, nuclear, geothermal, gas, offshore wind, storage, and fusion must all advance—along with the workforce to build them. The global energy landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation since the Industrial Revolution. Electricity demand is surging at unprecedented rates while the imperative to decarbonize […]

From plunging costs to policy upheaval, the global battery storage sector is transforming grid design—and facing unprecedented challenges. The energy storage industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. On one side, costs are plummeting so dramatically that utility-scale batteries can now deliver solar power around the clock at competitive prices. On the other, regulatory upheaval—particularly in […]

Several natural gas–fueled units are being developed as a way to support the industrial sector, including data centers, and to help integrate more renewable energy to the grid.

Xcel Energy has moved to lock in supply and development capacity for what could become 6 GW of data center load through separate strategic agreements with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy, announced this week, that reserve five F-class gas turbines, multiple gigawatts of wind capacity, and joint development resources to support generation buildout into the […]

Abilene-based Natura Resources, which won the first federal construction permit for a liquid-fueled molten-salt reactor in 2024, will work with NGL Water Solutions Permian to explore deploying its 100-MWe reactor design alongside thermal desalination systems to transform briny drilling waste into usable water—while powering data centers and other industrial loads hungry for around-the-clock electricity. The […]

For decades, utilities have deployed distributed generation along distribution circuits primarily for single-circuit capacity support and voltage regulation. While these applications remain valuable, a broader opportunity is emerging: siting generators directly at substations to unlock system-level benefits that extend far beyond any single feeder. For rural electric cooperatives, municipal power systems, and even investor-owned utilities […]

When it comes to the latest technologies, utilities aren’t exactly early adopters—with good reason. Silicon Valley’s motto of “move fast and break things” can have disastrous consequences when applied to an industry tasked with keeping the lights on around the clock for millions of Americans.

The AI boom is poised to fuel a rapid—and drastic—surge in electricity demand, placing unprecedented pressure on utilities to modernize their grids, integrate distributed energy resources, and reduce mounting supply chain and customer costs.

For the U.S., keeping up with AI’s insatiable appetite is the biggest systemic risk of the next decade. America needs a massive expansion of power plants, transmission lines, and advanced hardware, while using AI itself to drive grid progress and optimize power distribution.

After more than two decades of relative stasis, electricity demand in the U.S. is expected to increase by 25% by 2030 and by more than 75% by 2050, compared to 2023—a transformation largely driven by the surge in new data centers needed to power the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Microsoft has committed to “paying its way” to ensure its data centers will not ramp up residential utility rates, becoming the first major hyperscaler to publicly commit to a comprehensive framework that ties artificial intelligence (AI) data center growth to cost-recovery rate design. The hyperscaler also pledged to advance utility coordination, directly fund grid infrastructure, […]

Developers of a new pumped storage hydropower installation in Washington state said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued an operating license for the project. Rye Development, a U.S.-based developer of pumped storage hydropower, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), on behalf of its Flagship Fund CI V, on January 22 said FERC gave the […]

Integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar, wind, batteries, and electric vehicles into the power grid is an important part of the energy transition. Utilities and transmission system operators know they need more flexibility when it comes to power generation and delivery, which involves modernizing infrastructure, using advanced controls, and developing new market rules to manage two-way power flow.

Energy-generation permitting in the Mid-Atlantic continues to evolve in 2026 not through wholesale deregulation or uniform acceleration, but through procedural and permitting reform and the potential allocation of generation development authority to public utilities. States are enacting these changes to meet the reality of reliability concerns, transmission constraints, large load-growth, and to address frequent obstruction of energy projects by local government.

A data center development company led by former executives with Amazon Web Services (AWS) has joined with a leading investment group to launch a platform for hyperscale data centers in North America.

As artificial intelligence (AI) models and workloads continue to scale in size and sophistication, their hunger for processing power—and the energy that fuels it—is accelerating faster than any previous wave of digital innovation.

Affordable electricity prices have become a top priority for consumers, policymakers, voters, and elected officials. Electricity prices for the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors averaged 6.7% higher in September 2025, compared to the same month one year ago. Residential prices alone increased by more than 7%, making it especially challenging for low- and middle-income […]

Two Colorado-based groups are partnering to develop power generation solutions for data centers. Liberty Energy, the Denver-based oil and gas company founded by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Vantage Data Centers (also headquartered in Denver) on January 5 announced a partnership to “develop and deliver utility-scale, high-efficiency power solutions,” presumably natural gas-fired units, for Vantage’s continued expansion of its North American portfolio.

Analysts still see multi-year deficits in U.S. transformer supply, even as equipment manufacturers invest billions in new factories and advanced manufacturing processes. But some brokers suggest there is no

The world has firmly crossed into the “Age of Electricity.” That is a unifying finding in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) 2025 edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO), which shows a global

From artificial intelligence-driven efficiency to transmission bottlenecks, power industry insiders share their perspectives on the opportunities and obstacles shaping 2026 and beyond. The power generation

In early 2020, the prevailing narrative in the power sector was a continuation story of the developments from the decade before: renewable buildout will keep compounding, thermal capacity will keep retiring (albeit at a slower rate), markets will evolve to compensate for flexible generation products, capital will keep moving earlier in the development value chain […]

The power sector is grappling with a fundamental mismatch: hyperscale data centers demand electricity at unprecedented speed and scale, while the infrastructure to serve them operates on timelines measured in years, not months. According to Stephen Empedocles, PhD, founder and CEO of Clark Street Associates (CSA), an advisory firm specializing in government funding for technology […]

[Ed. update 1/6/2026: This article has been updated to include additional context about the scope and methodology of the E3 study referenced herein.] As electricity demand from data centers continues to surge, a persistent question has dogged the industry: Are residential ratepayers footing the bill for massive tech infrastructure? According to Amazon Web Services (AWS) […]

Data centers are already among the world’s hungriest power users, and artificial intelligence (AI) is pushing their energy consumption to new heights. The International Energy Agency expects data centers’ electricity use to more than double by 2030, reaching roughly 1,000 TWh. That’s a growth rate four times faster than the overall grid. In some scenarios, AI-optimized facilities could […]

As AI demand accelerates, the race is on to bend the power curve before it bends the grid. The first electric refrigerators were mechanical curiosities—loud, bulky appliances that consumed staggering amounts of electricity. But they spread anyway, because the productivity gains were too great to ignore. Daily habits shifted. Food systems reshaped. Household labor changed […]

The power of U.S. innovation and market incentives cannot be underestimated. The convergence of a business-driven energy transition and the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) have exposed a critical bottleneck within our energy grid.

In the push for more efficient and streamlined permitting processes, recent changes from Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the executive branch have reshaped the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) landscape.

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has selected the five commercial teams that will potentially demonstrate advanced applications—including data center integration—at its much-watched Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) platform, an 85-kWth/20-kWe liquid-metal-cooled test bed currently under construction at the lab. The initial selections, unveiled on Dec. 4, mark the “first potential end users for MARVEL,” […]

For years, some folks have considered coal-fired power plants relics of a bygone era, overshadowed by the rise of natural gas and renewables. Yet, in an unexpected twist, coal is finding its way back into the