The U.S. Dept. of Energy has said electrification “is not necessarily the goal, [but] rather a means to achieving a community goal such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions or lowering energy costs. For utilities, the goal—or the benefits—of electrification might be to support system optimization, improve efficiencies, and increase resiliency. Ultimately, people and businesses will choose beneficial electric technologies.”
POWER recently spoke with several energy experts about electrification and how it impacts the power generation sector. Charles Murray, CEO and co-founder of Switched Source, an electric distribution automation group, was among those who provided POWER with insight on the importance of electrification, and also about the technologies needed to ensure utilities can manage the increasing demand for electricity.
POWER: How important is electrification to reaching decarbonization goals, whether for a municipality, commercial and industrial enterprise, utility, or other enterprise?
Murray: As buildings, EVs (electric vehicles), and industrial processes are increasingly electrified, we are seeing grid demand rapidly growing. While this shift is necessary to reduce emissions, it also introduces new challenges for grid stability, capacity, and long-term reliability.
The electric distribution grid has not experienced significant load growth since the widespread adoption of air conditioning over 50 years ago. With the rapid adoption of electrification technologies, utilities are facing rising peak loads, congestion on existing infrastructure, and operational constraints that make widespread electrification more complex. The current grid was not designed to handle the scale and variability of these modern demands. However, upgrading the grid through traditional infrastructure investments is costly and time-consuming, creating a gap between electrification goals and the grid’s ability to support them.
Utilities need scalable, flexible technologies that optimize existing assets and increase grid capacity without requiring extensive new infrastructure to bridge this gap. Solutions such as advanced distribution automation, energy storage, and power flow control technologies allow utilities to manage rising electricity demand while maintaining customer reliability and affordability.
Electrification and decarbonization are interdependent, but achieving these goals at scale without modernizing grid operations will be challenging. By adopting grid-enhancing technologies, utilities can support electrification while ensuring a resilient, adaptable, and future-ready power system.
POWER: How should entities look to accomplish their electrification goals? What technologies (for heating, cooling, etc.) should be embraced?
Murray: Electrification involves transitioning vehicles, heating and cooling systems, and industrial processes onto the grid. As demand increases for electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other electrified systems, the power grid must be modernized to ensure it can deliver that electricity reliably and efficiently.
I like to compare today’s distribution circuits to a three-lane highway, which now needs to support far more traffic than it was built for. To expand capacity, utilities have traditionally been forced to build additional three-lane highways—adding poles, wires, and substations—which is costly and takes years to implement. However, modern grid technologies offer a more efficient solution: rather than building new lanes, utilities can better manage the existing traffic flow to maximize capacity.
Technologies like advanced distribution automation, real-time power flow control, and phase-balancing solutions help utilities dynamically optimize electricity distribution. These solutions enable the grid to support more distributed generation, electric vehicles, and electrified heating and cooling without requiring extensive new infrastructure.
Many end users are adopting end-use technologies like EVs and heat pumps to enhance their customer experience. To support this shift, grid innovations must work in lockstep to provide reliability and resiliency benefits to utilities while also enabling broader electrification. Utilities can leverage this transition as an opportunity to invest in “win-win” technologies, such as distribution automation tools, which streamline operations, enhance system reliability, and allow for greater electrification-related loads to connect to the grid without triggering costly system upgrades.
POWER: What should drive electrification? Should it be government policies, economic benefits, environmental benefits, or something else?
Murray: While government policies, market incentives, and environmental goals play a role in electrification, we believe economic and operational benefits will be the strongest drivers. Utilities must prioritize resiliency and reliability as they navigate rising demand and evolving grid challenges. Extreme weather events such as winter storms in the Midwest and Northeast or hurricanes in the Southeast highlight the need for more resilient energy infrastructure. Electrification offers an opportunity to invest in tools that support load growth while improving grid efficiency, which can enhance flexibility and lower long-term costs, as a pragmatic investment for system operators and ratepayers.
POWER: In the current political climate, at least in the U.S., should we rely on government policies to push electrification—or should adoption be driven by market forces?
Murray: Switched Source was founded in November of 2016, the month President Trump was elected for his first term. At the time, we had just won a grant from the Dept. of Energy, and we saw that technologies dedicated to increasing energy resiliency, both in terms of energy production and distributing the energy, had bipartisan support across administrations.
In what we’ve seen from the Trump administration in the past, and again since re-taking office, they are looking to align their dollars specifically with the reliability, resiliency, and security of energy in the United States. Electrification, as previously mentioned, can be a cost-effective way to strengthen the grid and achieve those goals.
While federal and state policies provide incentives and funding for grid improvements, utilities and private industry are making investment decisions based on operational needs, cost-effectiveness, and long-term grid resilience.
Historically, technologies that enhance grid reliability and resilience have had bipartisan support across administrations. Regardless of political shifts, utilities and energy providers continue to prioritize solutions that increase efficiency, reduce system strain, and improve flexibility in energy distribution.
Technologies like distribution automation that enable electrification offer a cost-effective pathway to strengthen the grid by reducing congestion and enabling more flexible power distribution. Whether driven by policy mandates, economic incentives, or utility-led initiatives, the ultimate goal is to ensure a reliable, resilient, and adaptive energy system to meet future demand.
POWER: How can electrification technologies help utilities manage electricity, and support grid flexibility?
Murray: Electricity demand is predicted to increase by 9% by 2028 and 18% by 2033. Capacity constraints will continue to be an increasing challenge for energy providers as aging infrastructure, rising demand, and growing distributed energy adoption push grid limits. Traditionally, system upgrades are costly and time-consuming, but technologies that assist in electrification efforts can offer scalable solutions that optimize existing infrastructure and reduce reliance on expensive overhauls.
Technologies offering dynamic load balancing, real-time power flow control, and advanced distribution automation allow utilities to manage peak demand, integrate distributed generation, and stabilize the grid despite fluctuating loads. These solutions increase resiliency and operational efficiency, enabling a more flexible and responsive power distribution system.
As utilities adopt these technologies, they improve reliability and efficiency today and prepare the grid for the evolving challenges of electrification, extreme weather, and increased load growth.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
