The Plan For The US Power Grid

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0:24Most Americans use an extraordinary amount of electricity without thinking much about it. You may have several chargers plugged in for your phone, laptop, and other electronics right now. In your kitchen, appliances like your fridge, microwave, and oven also require electricity. When you switch on the lights, you expect them to come on, and for the most part, everything works as we want it to. But the more things we plug into the country's power grid, the more strained it becomes. Demand for electricity in the U.S. is steadily rising for the first time in more than a decade, and our power grid isn't built to handle it.

0:59The U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has also thrust the world into the largest energy crisis in history because of blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a channel four-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas. Now, there is a bright spot for those concerned about the climate crisis. Last year marked the first time since 1919 that renewable energy produced more of the world's electricity than coal. That includes solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, and geothermal energy. Clean energy also met all new global energy demand growth. That's according to a recent report from Ember Energy, an independent global energy think tank focused on the transition to clean energy.

1:37I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A Podcast. Today, what's at risk if the power grid can't keep up with our growing energy demands in the U.S.? And what role is clean energy playing in meeting those demands, especially as the war in Iran highlights the uncertainty of relying on oil and gas? Answers to those questions and more right after this short break. Stay with us.

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3:27Carvana gives you a transparent offer for your car in minutes and picks it up from your door. Sell your car today at Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. We're talking about the U.S. power grid and the rising demand for electricity. Joining us is Robinson Meyer. He's the founding executive editor at Heatmap News. Robinson, it's great to have you back. It's great to be here. Thanks so much. Also with us is Ben King. He's the Director of Energy and Climate Practices at Rhodium Group. That's an independent research provider. Ben, welcome to the program. Thanks, Jen.

4:02Happy to be here. So, Ben, let's just start with the basics. What is the power grid and how does it work in the U.S.? Sure. The power grid is what the National Academy of Engineering called the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. It's the wires that connect the big power plants that you see along the highway and the solar farms, the wind farms that you see dotted across the U.S., to the homes and businesses. So it's all the big wires that get from those power plants. It's the substations that change voltages on the currents and get it down to what we can use in our homes and businesses.

4:42So it's this big, sprawling machine, really an incredible piece of engineering. Now, Robinson, you argue that the power grid, as it is, is not prepared to support the amount of electricity we're using and will likely use in the future. Why not? Well, because as Ben said, the power grid was built over 100 years ago, and it is a fantastic machine. I think the scale and size of it is really mind-boggling, has been hinted at. We know the power grid, for instance, electricity oscillates on it at 60 hertz. What's so crazy is that the whole system works on the same 60 hertz. So you imagine all the thermal power plants, all the machinery hooked up to those power plants, it's all rotating at the same 60 hertz across the eastern half of the country, the western half of the country, and Texas, which are our three big grids.

5:36To actually answer your question, though, the power grid is basically divided up to three categories. There's generation, which is what makes the power. There's transmission, which moves the power over long distances and ultimately to substations. And there's the distribution system, which gets the power from substations to end users, homes and businesses. When we look at the future, we know we're going to need a lot more electricity, and that implies a lot more generation resources. We also know we could use a lot more transmission because renewable electricity especially, but frankly, all forms of electricity kind of work better when you can knit different parts of the grid together.

6:15And we know we'll need to probably update large parts of the distribution system because in some cases, and in fact, in much of the country, the distribution system is quite old. We built it 60 years ago and it kind of paid it off, but now it needs to be refreshed. And also because there's new technology that could allow us to use electricity in a more flexible and robust way if we had more up-to-date machinery. So all of those things are kind of coming together and creating this moment where the power grid is going to need big upgrades across a number of different systems. At this moment, we also know we need a lot more electricity.

6:53Well, Ben, what is driving this growing demand for electricity in the U.S.? Today, the biggest driver of this growing demand is coming from something that I think has been on the top of a lot of people's minds, which is data centers. The largest single contributor over the past couple of years to growth on the grid is coming from data centers as they seek to plug in and really connect to the power that they need. There's also a growing amount of electricity-intensive manufacturing in this country. So, you know, we've seen a pretty substantial build-out of things like battery manufacturing facilities, solar panel factories, things like that.

7:40Those are also pretty electricity intensive, so they take a lot of electricity to run. But really, far and away, the driver, as of today, is the need to power the data centers that are trying to come online. Well, I want to talk more about data centers in a moment, but we got this question from Javier, who says, I wanted to ask your panelists a question about power infrastructure. I used to work in power generator repair and was told by some of the owners that climate change was shortening the time available for generators to be pulled offline and inspected and repaired. How is the maintenance, frequency, and quality of the current generators being impacted by the increased demand for power?

8:18Ben? That's a great question. And I don't have a solid answer on that. But I'll just say, you know, we are seeing the grid being taxed by climate change more broadly. And I think some of the work that Rob did here points to this, but we see, for instance, the need to recover from increasing numbers of climate-driven disasters like hurricanes that have hit the southeast, as well as seismic events like earthquakes out west, as driving some of the need to be making these improvements to the grid. And then you do see, just from a grid operations standpoint, you do see, particularly in hotter weather, both reduced output from thermal generators.

9:06So those gas and coal plants can't run quite as much. And also reduced ability to transmit power through the electricity lines that Rob was talking about when it gets hotter outside. Rob, anything to add around this question of maintenance frequency and the quality of the current generators and how they're being affected by our increased pull on the grid? No, I got to be honest. Incredible question. I mean, I think what Ben said, and I don't know the answer in terms of on a kind of maintenance basis, I guess what I'd say is kind of two things. First of all, of course, if you run this equipment more, you're going to run it.

9:47It will need to be serviced more. And Ben mentioned the role the data centers are playing on the grid and data centers are playing an enormously intensive role in driving a power demand. He will have more up-to-date information than I will. The last time I checked, data centers, while they are the plurality of electricity, of coming electricity demand, are not the majority of it. There's lots of different reasons that electricity demand is going up and they include manufacturing, as he said. It's also that it's getting hotter in the summer and that's driving up demand for air conditioning. And when you just need to run equipment more, of course, it wears out sooner.

10:26There's also a whole other dynamic that we're not getting into, but I think I've hinted at, which is that the power lines themselves, especially in the distribution system, can get worn out or carry less power when it's hotter outside. And I can see that driving up maintenance timelines as well. This is a perennial problem in the Northeast Corridor where, especially in New Jersey, the old power lines, the power, the trains that the pantograph connects to actually sag too much in the heat and they can stop train traffic across the entire Northeast Corridor. Well, I think Javier may have given you a future reporting project for Heatmap News.

11:01What would building out the power grid to accommodate this growing electrical demand look like, Rob? What all needs to be built? Yeah, totally. I just want to add something to all of this, too, and say that right now the biggest driver is data centers. And data centers, I think, are driving up electricity more than we maybe expected a few years ago during this period. But we always knew we were going to return to a period where electricity demand was increasing. And that's because, you know, I think listeners may have a variety of opinions about data centers. But I think people, we knew that manufacturing was going to happen here.

11:38and we expected manufacturing. And as Ben said, that's driving up electricity demand. Electric vehicles, we always knew, would become a major driver of electricity demand. And over the next 10 to 15 years, we expect them to keep driving up demand to the point where they'll become the largest driver of residential electricity demand by the middle of the century. And so when we talk about the power grid briefly, what do we need to build out right now? Yeah, totally, exactly. So what we need to build out are a few things. First of all, we just need more generation. and I think that largely will take the form of, that can largely and large part take the form of renewables.

12:17That's solar and wind. Of course, the current administration has imposed a de facto pause or ban on building those resources. I also think we should look into other kinds of generation resources. We also need to update substations, and we need to update the distribution infrastructure in a lot of different parts of the country. So that's the actual poles and wires that goes to people's homes. Well, I want to turn to a message we got. Katie Emails was just talking to an electrician I hired to do some work on a house that my father renovated back in the 1960s. I essentially have to double the amount of electrical power to the tune of about 10K to my house because when the old lines were put in, there were no computers, no electric stoves, no massive TVs, no dishwashers, no massive refrigerators.

13:03As much as the new appliances are more energy efficient, there are also more of them. More to come right after the break.

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13:56Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from Jerry. Many people are overpaying on car insurance. Why? Switching providers can be a pain. Jerry helps make the process painless. Jerry is the only app that compares rates from over 50 insurers in minutes and helps you switch fast, with no spam calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over$1 ,300 a year. Before you renew your car insurance policy, download the Jerry app or head to jerry.ai.npr. Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs?

14:41Why are groceries so expensive? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious, because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's Planet Money wherever you get your podcasts and start seeing how the economy really works. Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at Hewlett.org. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. We're discussing the U.S. power grid, why it's struggling to keep up with our growing demand for electricity, and how clean energy is stepping up to meet those demands at home and around the world.

15:25Before we get back to our panel, let's hear from one of you. My name is Pete. I live in Connecticut. My electricity bill has gone up significantly. My usage is minimized to as low as I can possibly get it to go. Refrigerator, LED lights, etc., etc. The bill is doubled by add-on fees. Pete, thanks for that message. We want to hear from you. How much electricity do you use? And have you noticed an uptick in your electric bill because of your use? If you work in the energy sector, what concerns do you have about the state of the country's power grid? Email us at 1a at wamu.org. Let's bring a new voice to the conversation for a global perspective.

16:06Akshat Ratti is a senior climate reporter for Bloomberg News. He also hosts Bloomberg Green's climate podcast, Zero. Akshat, welcome to the program. Hey, it's nice to be here. So the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has thrust the world into an unprecedented energy crisis. Nearly 40 countries have taken emergency action to try to deal with the soaring oil and gas prices. That includes countries like Laos, which shortened its school week to three days. But how are countries globally reacting to this crisis, especially those hit hardest? So we know energy crises are sort of things that happen on a frequent basis.

16:43The boom and bust cycle is a feature of the fossil fuel market. You'll get oil prices going up. There'll be lots of investments going into building more oil fields, and then suddenly there'll be a collapse. So over the years of these boom and bust cycles, governments have developed a playbook for how they can respond. Rich countries are able to cut fuel taxes. Here in Europe, for example, fuel is taxed. And so if you want to keep the price of the pump the same, you just cut the tax and the government gets less revenue, but the consumer is paying the same amount. But poorer countries don't have that kind of buffer.

17:20And so as you pointed out, there are countries like Laos, but also Thailand, Philippines, who are encouraging people to work from home so that you're not traveling as much, you're not burning as much fuel. There are other types of conservation measures, especially as summer is starting to kick off in the tropical area, in the northern hemisphere, to try and keep the air conditioner temperature higher. So 25 degrees Celsius, 90 Fahrenheit. Those are short-term measures that you can do right now. But as the guest earlier was speaking about, there is now an additional lever that governments can pull, which wasn't available in the crises of the 70s, 80s or even 90s, which is trying to deploy lots and lots of renewables quickly.

18:04You can get a utility-scale solar plant now up and running in as little as two months in some places. and try and electrify as much of the consumption of energy as possible because those electric devices are just much more efficient. For the same unit of energy, your electric vehicle is going three times the distance of a gasoline car. Your heat pump is producing three times the amount of heating or cooling for every unit of electricity compared to a gas boiler or an oil furnace. And we are seeing governments, both rich and poor, press those levers as well. So do you think these are levers that they will leave in the on position permanently, or are these short-term responses?

18:47Well, these are policy changes that do have larger impacts. So let's take an example of what we can look at in the past, very recent past, which is the gas power crisis that we had here in Europe after Russia attacked Ukraine. A lot of the gas that Europe consumed came via these pipelines from Russia, and as soon as the war started, those pipelines were either shut and there was a gas shortage, which caused Europe to really struggle and pay whatever it could to try and get liquefied LNG, liquefied natural gas from places like the US or from Qatar at extremely high prices. The power prices at that time were five, ten times the normal power prices and remained elevated for months altogether.

19:33weather. This time around, with the Strait of Hormuz closed because of this war, even under a ceasefire, about 20 % of the world's gas supply is stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. There's 20 % of liquefied natural gas supply. And yet power prices haven't jumped as much in Europe. And partly that is because of the steps that the governments took at that time to speed up the deployment of renewables and to build out the grid in that period, which is one of the key reasons why power prices haven't gone up. So countries, especially fossil fuel importing countries, are going to look at what happened in Europe and then, I assume, stay on that lever for much longer because policy changes, once made, take a little while to reverse.

20:18Robinson, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well on whether this moment could actually accelerate the global transition to clean energy. I think it is accelerating the global transition to clean energy. I think, as Akshay has been talking about, I mean, I think what makes this moment so different is that there is an alternative energy system that countries can turn to that is not based on oil or natural gas. And I think we're seeing this particularly in the transportation sector. And I think we're seeing this particularly with Chinese EVs. And so across Southeast Asia, what countries have the most limited access to, you know, most of the oil that actually came out of the Strait of Hormuz, has gone physically to Southeast Asian and Asian countries.

21:02And what that means is that those countries are the locus of the shortages right now. And so while we might be seeing elevated gasoline prices in the United States, they're nothing like the actual physical shortages that are occurring in Asia. And to some degree, there's a great sucking of gasoline and oil all around the world as it tries to go to these Asian markets that right now aren't being supplied by their usual suppliers, be it Kuwait or the UAE or Iran itself. What we're seeing is that many in those countries, sales of Chinese-made electric vehicles are surging. And that is because if you have a Chinese EV or if you have a cheap EV, which right now are largely made by Chinese companies, then you don't need gasoline, right?

21:49You have transportation, you have mobility in a way that doesn't make you dependent on the liquid fuel system. What's interesting, I think, is that the reason China developed this world-leading EV industry is because it was trying to solve for a problem of what would happen if it lost access, in part because it was trying to solve a problem of what would happen if it lost access to seaborne liquid fuels like oil and gasoline. Of course, now a much wider set of countries around Asia are experiencing an actual loss of access to seaborne liquid fuels. And so we're seeing a huge surge in Chinese EVs.

22:24Now, I don't know whether this will last after this crisis ends. I think for a large part, kind of this crisis will become more and more significant in terms of shaping energy system the longer it goes on. And there is a chance that if the war were to end next week or tomorrow, that we would see behavior largely snap back to where it had been. But you'll never, you know, those cars that were purchased over the past six weeks or eight weeks will stay on the road. And people will factor these price surges that they're seeing into their long-term buying behavior. Well, Akshay, I think, as we mentioned before, it's important to note a new report from Member Energy released last month found that 2025 was the first year since 1919 that renewable energy produced more of the world's electricity than coal.

23:15So clean energy also meant all new global energy demand growth. So this is a major point in history. Help us understand the significance of this moment. It certainly is. You know, when we have statistics like the fact that there has been never any type of energy technology that has declined in price as fast and as much as solar power has done in the last three decades. It tells you that it is enabling countries to do things that they've not been able to do in the past. and the fact that we are now starting to see a point where not just every additional unit of electricity consumed is being added by renewables but it is starting to displace coal which has been the primary and the majority source of electricity generation for the last four to five decades is a huge signal.

24:19And to Robinson's point, you know, it is true that we don't know whether consumer choices of electric vehicles or rooftop solar will stick around because, you know, there is a sticker price to these clean energy technologies that tends to be still higher, even with a cheap Chinese electric car. You know, if you're buying in India, for example, a gasoline car, it is still a more expensive option. And so will those consumer choices stick around on their own is a question. But the point about policy changes, ones that governments make, are the ones that will have much longer term impact. So I'm reporting on Philippines at the moment, and we saw within the first two weeks of the war starting, the government made a series of changes to policy that are starting to show up as a result.

25:13So it launched a program that would provide loans to individuals to install rooftop solar. We spoke to a person who has that rooftop solar installed as of April 15th, and he only chose it because he knew that the war is going to cause electricity prices to shoot up. They introduced another loan program at the end of April to try and get people to buy electric cars. And they, on the side with their utility, announced speeding up of all the utility scale solar plants that were in planning and in construction right now to try and bring them online very quickly. So these kinds of changes, you know, from a country like Philippines, where, you know, people can't really afford to make lots of subsidies to enable people to buy these technologies, loan programs, these policy changes they can sticker.

26:02Melissa emails, my pet peeve for power consumption are the ambient lights attached to every single appliance I own. My microwave, my toaster, my Wi-Fi router, my television, my cable box, my stove, even my refrigerator has a little clock or a lighted button that stays on all the time and I know it uses energy. Even my chargers and power strips have a little light on them. It's nuts. Each one individually probably doesn't use much power at all, but I just walked around my house and I counted 13 of these ambient lights on right now. It's little things like that that add up. We got this question from Tom who asks, how is renewable energy integrated into the power grid?

26:42Ben, what can you tell us? Well, one big way that renewable energy is integrated into the power grid that's been growing really rapidly over the past couple of years is through the use of battery storage. So, you know, famously, the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine. And so one way to take some of those electrons that come during those periods of abundance and make them available when those resources are less available is through the use of battery storage that lets you shift. And that's been, you know, battery storage had a record year on the U.S. grid in 2025 with installations seeing their highest level ever.