The electricity gauntlet has arrived

Catalyst with Shayle Kann

The electricity gauntlet we covered last year has been having a moment in the national spotlight, with coverage of rising load growth in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

On one side of the gauntlet, demand for electricity is rising, driven by new loads like EVs, data centers, and electrification. On the other side, electricity supply is slow to grow, bogged down by years-long interconnection queues, the immense challenges of building transmission, and other bottlenecks. And utilities are stuck in the middle, struggling to deliver enough power to meet that rising demand.

These challenges have been brewing for years, but the AI race is supercharging demand as big tech companies seek out power for their growing data center fleet.

So what does all this mean for emissions and prices? And what tools do we have to make it through this electricity gauntlet?

In this episode, Shayle talks to his colleague Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research at Energy Impact Partners. Shayle and Andy cover topics like:

• Why utilities are building new natural gas plants and keeping coal plants open to meet load growth
• How technologies like nuclear, grid-enhancing technologies, geothermal, and multi-day storage could meet load growth with fewer emissions
• What utilities can do to prepare new gas plants for carbon-capture and storage
• What the gauntlet might do to electricity prices and which customers might be willing to pay higher premiums (data centers, cough cough)
• Whether the hype around rising power demand is overblown
• Plus, what medieval Swedish spearmen have to do with electricity

Recommended Resources:

Andy Lubershane: The electricity gauntlet

S&P Global: NERC raises North American power system reliability flags as demand could outstrip supply

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