Building America’s new power grid: Can the transmission network grow to keep pace with rising electricity demand?

Americas needs more electricity, and fast. Data centres for AI, and new factories for computer chips and batteries, are driving up demand for electricity, putting mounting pressure on a power grid that has already been struggling. Across different industrial sectors, and different parts of the political spectrum, there is a broad agreement that new transmission infrastructure is urgently needed. But despite that support, getting new power lines built remains a major challenge. In the first of two special episodes of The Energy Gang recorded at the ACORE Grid Forum in Washington, DC, host Ed Crooks asks what is holding back investment in the grid, and what can be done to speed it up.

The Grid Forum brings together industry leaders, politicians and policy experts to discuss the future of the American electricity system. This year the hot topics were lengthy permitting processes, uncertain project costs, and market rules that are no longer fit for purpose at a time when there is a demand for new generation to be connected to the grid as rapidly as possible.

Ed is joined first by Madeline Gould Laughlin, director of regulatory affairs at Grid United, which is developing long-distance transmission projects to connect different regions of the US. Madeline explains why she thinks grid operators need to do more to recognize the reliability benefits of inter-regional transmission, giving utilities stronger incentives to invest in new connections.

Next Jenny Chen, a principal at the Regulatory Assistance Project, explores how changes to financing and regulation could encourage investment. She discusses the cap-and-floor model for funding transmission that is used in Great Britain: it combines revenue certainty for developers with incentives to make transmission projects commercially successful. Could a similar approach work in the US, where different states, regulators and grid operators often struggle to agree on who should pay for new infrastructure?

The conversation also turns to the growing backlog of energy projects waiting to connect to the grid. Adam Stern, director of market policy at independent power producer Clearway Energy, explains how uncertain connection costs and lengthy interconnection queues are preventing new electricity supply from coming online. He highlights reforms being introduced by Southwest Power Pool that could provide developers with greater cost certainty, and could provide a model for other grid operators to follow.

Finally, Ed speaks to Colin Meehan, vice president for grid campaigns at ACORE, about the policy changes needed to accelerate grid expansion. Colin argues that stronger connections between regional electricity systems could improve reliability, unlock access to lower-cost power and help keep consumer bills down. The discussion examines the potential impact of bipartisan permitting reform in Washington, and why work at the state and regional levels will remain essential regardless of what happens at the federal level.

Across the conversations, a common challenge emerges: the investment opportunities to expand grid capacity are real, but regulatory barriers, financing challenges and slow development processes continue to hold projects back. For the energy industry, the question is how to turn the general agreement on the need for a stronger grid into the action required to build one.

This is the first of two special episodes of The Energy Gang recorded at the ACORE Grid Forum (2026) in Washington, DC, exploring the strategies, policies and technologies shaping the future of America's electricity grid.

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