Think of the U.S. power grid as a human body: a complex system of inputs and end uses, interconnected across a wide area. We have spent the last two decades largely maintaining our well-being — navigating challenges here and there, perhaps ignoring that niggling ache or pain while the system has run smoothly overall.  

Yet with any aging system, the demands compound and eventually become unavoidable. The demands on the U.S. energy grid are now growing significantly, introducing new challenges that the system cannot withstand in its current state.  

As many of us begin the New Year and resolve to get back into shape, it’s time for the grid to do the same: focus on healthy, sustainable inputs; build muscle; and improve flexibility to ensure we’re prepared to handle expected and unexpected challenges over the next several decades. For the power system, meeting surging energy demand from new high-tech infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and broader economic growth will require significant build-out of reliable, carbon emissions-free generation resources, major upgrades to the grids we have today, and new transmission capacity to expand and connect those grids. 

Here are four recommendations to help shape up the electricity grid:   

1. Energy certainty: Policymakers can work together to ensure permitting certainty for all project types, avoiding the pendulum of uncertainty that swings back and forth every four to eight years as administrations promote the technologies they favor and slow those they do not.  
2. Permitting streamlining: The U.S. should reform the way some major environmental laws are administered, maintaining environmental protections while preventing the laws from being leveraged as a tool to prevent timely and cost-effective infrastructure development.  
3. Judicial reform: The U.S. can shorten the litigation timeline for energy projects, offering time for public intervention while curbing litigation abuse intended to stall projects for strategic or political reasons.
4. Transmission planning: The U.S. can require interregional transmission planning to promote the development of major power lines that connect various power markets and grid regions. Interregional transmission lines operate as the grid’s backbone, allowing regions to move electricity to and from other parts of the country depending on need and resource availability. Strong muscles require strong bones to support them. 

In the meantime, we’re seeing two symptoms as the grid struggles to meet new demand: rising electricity prices and reliability challenges in some areas. Both can be addressed by taking steps to expedite the deployment of generation resources and build-out of transmission capacity. 

Luckily, the U.S. has some muscle memory when it comes to the grid, as we’ve trained for big undertakings in the past. In the 1950s post-war era, economic growth and electrification efforts yielded a 5% annual demand increase that the nation met by investing in generation and additional system capacity. Meeting the 2% annual growth the nation is facing today will require getting back into the gym and using the latest knowledge and technologies to help tone the system, though we shouldn’t be surprised if it takes a little time to shake the rust off.  

CEBA is optimistic about the year ahead. Despite headwinds, our members are committed to supporting a broad suite of technologies across the U.S. and globally — and they’re buying more than ever before.  

In fact, corporate clean energy procurement is on track to conclude a record-setting year in the U.S. Corporate buyers voluntarily procured at least 24.5 gigawatts (GW) of new carbon emissions-free generation capacity this year, with deals involving solar, wind, and batteries as well as record-levels of clean firm technologies like nuclear, geothermal, fusion, hydropower, long-duration storage, and even the first corporate carbon capture and storage deal on a natural gas plant.   

We expect a surge in wind and solar power purchase agreements early this year as developers seek to take advantage of the remaining time before the federal tax credits phase out. Interest in and procurement of clean firm resources is set to grow, building upon a big year for nuclear procurement, geothermal development, and carbon capture and storage progress. 

And we remain hopeful that Congress will pass a bipartisan permitting and transmission reform deal, paving the way for the critical energy projects needed to enable economic prosperity. The House took a major step in this process last month, passing the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. CEBA urges the Senate to move quickly on this legislation and strengthen protections for existing and new energy infrastructure permits to maintain grid reliability and meet growing electricity demand. The Senate is also well-positioned to pair this bill with reasonable reforms to expand America’s transmission system. 

It’s time to pump some iron and get steel in the ground. New year, new grid.