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The US electric grid is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Electricity demand is soaring, renewables are reshaping the country’s power mix, and federal policies are shifting the trajectory of energy development. Meanwhile, extreme weather continues to highlight vulnerabilities in the system.
Explore these four key trends impacting power grid updates and how you can navigate the increasingly complex energy landscape.
Trend 1: Load Growth
Load growth has been a hot topic for many years, so it’s no surprise it makes our list of key trends. The numbers are staggering, with US electricity demand potentially growing by 128 GW over the next five years.
The most significant five-year load increases are expected in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) and the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) footprints, which could add a combined 73 gigawatts of demand by 2030. Growth will come from three key sectors, while creating a threat to reaching renewable energy targets.
Data Centers
With increased demand from artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency mining, and the ever-expanding adoption of connected devices, data centers will drive a significant percentage of the coming load growth.
A recent report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found that data center demand has tripled over the past decade and is expected to double or even triple again by 2028.
Tracking this growth is challenging due to the lack of uniform reporting and oversight when connecting these power-hungry systems to the grid. Independent System Operators (ISOs) are establishing some standards as they develop plans to address data center needs, but for now, the sector is the Wild, Wild West of the energy world – a little chaotic and disorderly.
A tool like Yes Energy’s Infrastructure Insights monitors data center construction, providing you the information you need to make informed business decisions. The tool visualizes key data points such as ownership, size, location, status, timeline, etc.
For example, Figure 1 shows all announced data centers currently in development or under construction. As you can see, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Dallas are the hottest spots for development, with Reno and Columbus, Ohio, also seeing significant expansions of planned data center load.
The Infrastructure Insights team continuously monitors the sector, ensuring you have the most up-to-date information.
Manufacturing
Data centers are just one part of the load growth equation. Some manufacturing facilities can gobble up hundreds of megawatts. For example, Micron Technology is building two semiconductor plants in Clay, New York, which together are expected to pull over 1,000 MW from NYISO’s grid.
As with data centers, Yes Energy’s Infrastructure Insights tracks the construction of manufacturing facilities, including those producing batteries, automobiles, semiconductors, solar panels, and many more industries.
Our team started tracking manufacturing load centers last summer, and we're already watching almost 400 upcoming plants, with more added daily.
Electrification
The rise in electric vehicles (EVs) is also driving load growth, as is the electrification of buildings, industrial processes, and agricultural equipment. As we’ll discuss in a moment, the new administration’s policies may slow the construction of large EV charging infrastructure projects. However, the electrification of everything from cars to furnaces to cooktops will create not only more demand for electricity but also new patterns for demand.
Infrastructure Insights provides actionable insights into electric vehicle projects.
Threat to Renewable Energy Targets
According to a December report from Grid Strategies, regardless of how the Trump Administration shapes the US generation mix, the grid will face an anticipated 3% annual average load growth over the next five years, a level not seen since the 1980s. At the same time, the new administration’s prioritization of fossil fuels has delayed the retirement of existing coal plants as well as the development of renewable energy projects, making it harder for states to reach their renewable energy targets.
Yes Energy is actively watching for changes to these goals, as shown above, to see how they will drive new generation development. The states in blue have renewable energy goals, and those in pink have passed legislation to meet their targets.
Trend 2: The Growth of Renewables
In 2024, renewable energy sources accounted for more than 90% of new electrical generating capacity, 80% of which was solar.
In addition to states and utilities, companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are investing billions of dollars in renewable energy deployment to help handle the load from their data centers.
The growth rate of renewables may slow in the coming years due to uncertainties with the new administration; however, generation as a whole must increase to support load growth. Our Infrastructure Insights team is watching this unfold in real time and delivering the project updates you need to make informed decisions.
Despite demand, the interconnection backlog continues to hinder the growth of renewables. The number of new transmission interconnection requests rose between 300 and 500% over the last decade, with 2.6 TW of clean energy and storage capacity currently waiting to connect to the grid.
Because the volume of requests is overwhelming the interconnection queue, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is working with ISOs and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) to update current interconnection processes.
In January, FERC approved a proposal to limit the size of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO’s) interconnection queue studies. FERC also recently approved two proposals to increase power supplies in PJM’s territories ahead of potential capacity shortfalls.
Additionally, the proposed Grid Power Act would prioritize dispatchable power plants in interconnection queues.
The Yes Energy Infrastructure Insights team is actively on the lookout for other changes that could address the interconnection backlog.
Trend 3: Policy Changes
Not surprisingly, the new administration has made some significant energy policy changes. While we expect generation capacity to increase in 2025, the exact mix of energy sources will likely evolve due to new tariffs and changes to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Likewise, onshoring of semiconductor production driven in part by the CHIPS Act which allocates $39 billion for semiconductor manufacturing in the US, may impact energy demand.
Another major change impacting market participants is FERC Order 1920, which established long-term planning and payment requirements for transmission providers to increase reliability and allow for the interconnection of more renewables. FERC recently modified the order to improve state regulators’ ability to participate in the long-term regional transmission planning process.
These policy changes, coupled with changes to federal funding and the generation interconnection process, are reshaping how changes to the US electric grid are realized. The Infrastructure Insights dataset as well as RTO Insider (a Yes Energy publication) helps you navigate the evolving energy policy landscape.
Trend 4: Rise in Storms and Fires
As the US electric grid continues to age and natural disasters frequently cause damage to it, work on the grid needs to become more proactive, rather than reactive. The number of billion-dollar disaster events in the US has been climbing since the mid-2000s, and the rise in natural disasters that damage the grid highlights the need for grid-hardening efforts.
Infrastructure Insights tracks upgrades or new construction of lines and substations as well as the primary driver behind a project, as reported by our data sources. The figure below shows all reliability and grid-hardening projects Yes Energy is tracking.
We note other drivers of transmission work as well, such as load growth or aging infrastructure.
Leveraging Infrastructure Insights
Navigating these key trends requires a deep understanding of the shifting energy landscape. Yes Energy’s Infrastructure Insights tracks changes to the North American electric grid, including new generation projects (both renewable and nonrenewable), upgrades to or new construction of transmission lines and substations, and new large-load infrastructure, such as data centers and manufacturing facilities.
The dataset provides powerful insights into the upcoming supply and demand changes that inform asset development, investment decisions, sales efforts, and modeling.
Contact Yes Energy to learn how Infrastructure Insights’ comprehensive dataset can supercharge your participation in US energy markets and keep you apprised of power grid updates.
Want to learn more? Join us for our free webinar Make Better Asset Siting Decisions with GridSite (which includes Infrastructure Insights data) on Thursday, April 17, at 1 p.m. MT. Save your spot!
About the author: Laura Fletcher is on the Yes Energy product team as an associate product manager. Prior to joining the team, Laura studied environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. She started working with energy data as a college intern (with The C Three Group, acquired by Yes Energy in October 2023) and has worked on various consulting projects, annual market forecasts, client relations, and database management.
