Utilities in the United States are set to invest nearly as much between now and 2029 as they did in the entire previous decade.
That’s according to estimates from the Edison Electric Institute, out this month. The investor-owned power companies the trade group represents are already on track to spend nearly $208 billion this year to bolster the electrical grid. Between 2025 and 2029, the capital expenditures are likely to hit $1.1 trillion, nearly matching the combined $1.3 trillion spent from 2015 to 2024.
During the past four years, new power generation rose steadily from 24% of spending in 2021 and 2022 to 30% this year. That’s likely to continue. At least 91 gigawatts of new capacity is currently under construction, and 488 gigawatts is planned or has been proposed between now and 2029. If all of that generation is built, it will represent a nearly 50% increase above the approximately 1,250 gigawatts of capacity on the grid today.
Actual generation jumped 3% last year, its largest increase in five years, to reach 4,304,038 gigawatt hours in 2024. By 2030, EEI projected domestic electricity generation to top 4,500,000 gigawatt hours. By 2040, that figure is set to rise to 5,400,000 gigawatt hours.
The construction wave is coming with some challenges. U.S. utilities requested or secured a record $29 billion in rate increases in the first half of 2025, more than double the price of hikes this time last year. Those hikes will impact around 40 million customers nationwide, with nearly half of those concentrated in the U.S. South.
