European countries are racing to bring new data centers online as AI labs across the globe continue to demand more compute. Several residents tied the outage to increasing electric demand from electric vehicles, housing growth, data centers and state climate mandates. Home » News » Ontario County outage sparks public anger over utility costs, grid reliability and New York’s energy future

People are often quick to cast air-conditioning as a villain, and it’s true that the technology will account for a major chunk of the globe’s rising energy demand in the future. Generators added 10.4 GW of new battery storage capacity in 2024, the second-largest generating capacity addition after solar. In the United States, cumulative utility-scale battery storage capacity exceeded 26 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, according to our January 2025 Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory.

AI is transforming utilities, from grid management and field operations to customer engagement and workforce innovation. Utilities can lead the low-carbon future by shifting from isolated projects to scalable platforms—accelerating electrification, cutting costs, and driving sustainable growth. As rising consumer expectations strain traditional customer service, energy providers are embedding AI into customer care—to enable proactive, personalized experiences that build trust and deliver lasting customer value. Optimize your business with data-driven strategies for enhanced resilience and efficiency. In vertically integrated markets, a customer’s access to different renewable electricity products will largely be based on what options their local utility makes available.

Segments we support

Over 80% of this planned natural gas capacity will be located across Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. Combined-cycle generation is expected to account for 3.3 GW of the planned additions, while combustion turbine units account for 2.8 GW. A new project, Tehuacana Creek 1 Solar and BESS, adding 837 megawatts (MW) in Texas, is the largest solar photovoltaic project expected to come online in 2026; it will also offer an additional 418 MW in battery energy storage capacity. “Getting upfront payments from data centers is a big fix for that, but removing the risk from investor-owned utilities may also remove their ability to recover the costs and profit from those builds.” The rise of AI data centers is transforming the energy landscape, creating unprecedented demand for electricity and forcing utilities to rethink how they plan for grid capacity. The proliferation of smart appliances and other distributed energy resources has increased opportunities and expectations for load flexibility.

NERC now forecasts that summer peak demand will grow by 224 GW over the next 10 years— an increase of more than 69% compared with its 2024 predictions. “Electricity peak demand and energy growth forecasts over the 10-year assessment period continue to climb higher than at any point in the past two decades,” the report said. However, none were expected to experience peak summer or winter shortfalls—the key criterion for high risk classification. The 2025 assessment found that 13 of 23 assessment areas may face resource challenges by the end of the decade. With peak demand set to surge over the next decade, NERC warns of potential grid shortfalls as early as 2028. Accenture was named by AWS as Global Consulting Winner in Energy Competency, helping clients build and implement advanced AWS-powered solutions across the value chain.

Built to Support the Grid: The Role of ELM MicroGrids in a Resilient Energy System

During the February 2021 winter storm, transmission companies inadvertently cut power to parts of the natural gas supply chain when ERCOT ordered the utilities to reduce power demand or risk further damage to the grid. Projects supported by this funding include DLR-enabled drone monitoring systems, advanced sensors for enhancing infrastructure performance, and advanced power flow control devices to enable grid flexibility. DOE’s support led to entities like GridBright, Avangrid, and the New York Power Authority integrating GLASS and WindSim Power Line software in their grid operations.

Continuing to advance smart energy, SolarEdge addresses a broad range of energy market segments through its PV, storage, EV charging, batteries, and grid services solutions. By leveraging world-class engineering capabilities and with a relentless focus on innovation, SolarEdge creates smart energy solutions that power our lives and drive future progress. About WeaveGridWeaveGrid is the grid orchestration software that enables utilities to serve growing load reliably and affordably by aligning electric demand with grid capacity from the bottom up. As DISCO continues to expand beyond EVs, WeaveGrid and SolarEdge are aligned in enabling utilities to integrate residential batteries in a https://bussinessfair.info/energizing-tomorrow-the-renewable-energy-economy.html way that supports grid needs while maintaining a positive customer experience. The partnership builds on WeaveGrid’s growing ecosystem of OEM relationships and reinforces DISCO as a flexible platform designed to scale alongside new distributed energy resources as they are adopted by customers and utilities.

Dina Summers

That decision aggravated the problem as natural gas producers were unable to deliver enough fuel to power plants. Since many power plants in Texas rely on natural gas as a fuel source, the state’s natural gas supply chain is critical to the flow of electricity. The power grid is made up of many different companies that generate electricity with natural gas, coal, nuclear power, wind and solar energy before transmission companies send it to homes and businesses.

Large and small load flexibility will play a more active role in grid management

Grid congestion caused by limited transmission capacity compounds the challenge, preventing electricity from moving efficiently across the country from generators to new loads. Expanding data centers, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and domestic manufacturing growth are driving this demand. The increase in natural gas-fired generation is slower than the overall increase in total U.S. generation, https://scriptmafia.org/templates/251491-themeforest-energize-v101-solar-renewable-energy-elementor-template-kit-34936849.html and so natural gas’s share of total power generation falls to 39% in 2027 compared to 40% in 2025. In our forecast, U.S. natural gas-fired generation totals 1,696 BkWh in 2026, about the same as in 2025, and then increases to 1,711 BkWh in 2027 as overall power demand increases. Natural gas is the largest source of electricity in the United States; however, its contribution to total generation has been declining from a peak share of 42% in 2024. Increasing amounts of battery storage capacity help to support the fluctuations in solar output during the day.

• Notable additions include the 837 MW Tehuacana Creek 1 project in Texas, which is expected to be the largest solar PV facility to come online this year.
• Via Canary Media, higher load forecasts have driven up capacity costs — the prices paid to power plants and other grid resources to meet peak grid demand — from $2.2 billion in 2023 to $14.7 billion in 2024, and to $16.1 billion in the summer’s capacity auction.
• Higher load forecasts have driven up capacity costs from $2.2 billion in 2023 to $14.7 billion in 2024, and to $16.1 billion in the summer’s capacity auction.
• Solar power makes up 51% of the planned 2026 capacity additions, followed by battery storage at 28% and wind at 14%.

From digital twin usage for in-sim, pre-deployment pipelines to onsite AI intelligence to ensure optimized power management—AI is accelerating grid development at scale. Explore how industry leaders are optimizing the grid to meet energy demands, manage peak load stress, and build advanced physical infrastructure using AI and accelerated computing. “Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities, and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods,” said Governor Abbott. Data from the Electric Power Research Institute shows that data centers now account for about 5% of U.S. electricity demand, but could triple by 2035.

Support Independent Texas News

PJM said it is concerned with the slow pace of generation construction. The auction results will likely spur power plant developers to build generation in PJM’s footprint, according to the Electric Power Supply Association. The cleared capacity included about 110 MW of new generation and 755 MW from uprates to existing or planned generation. Also, estimated peak load increased to about 153,000 MW from 150,000 MW, he said. Over the same period, 112.6 GW of generation is slated for retirement, including 55.9 GW of coal, 37.4 GW of natural gas, and 1.8 GW of nuclear, highlighting the dual challenge of system expansion and turnover now reshaping the grid. Nearly 91 GW of new capacity was under construction as of early 2025, with another 488 GW proposed through 2029, dominated by solar (216 GW), energy storage (152 GW), and wind (63 GW) projects, according to EEI’s Financial Review 2024.

The study is part of the Carolinas Transmission Planning Collaborative’s effort to identify future transmission needs before specific projects are selected. Rather than relying on one demand forecast, the company develops multiple scenarios and asks which transmission investments still make sense if the future changes. Several of the largest projects establish high-capacity corridors designed to increase transfer capability, relieve transmission constraints and accommodate changing generation patterns and forecasted load growth. While one utility discounts a 22.8 GW pipeline of prospective customers before building its load forecast, another models 16 hypothetical 100 MW to 500 MW customers to test where transmission may be needed.