“Is grandma subsidizing Google?” That’s what a reporter asked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on a Friday broadcast on New York City’s public radio station WNYC. The reporter, Nancy Solomon, reiterated the question: “Are ratepayers subsidizing these big AI plans?”
“We can’t let that happen,” Murphy responded. “I’ve never heard that phrase before but I’m going to start using it.”
It’s a sign of what the Clean Air Task Force called “a huge political challenge” that’s emerging as major tech companies look to power their growing artificial intelligence operations.
The United States’ electrical system is heaving under pressure from surging demand and aging equipment, and utilities are requesting record rate increases. The Trump administration’s answer to keeping the lights on and costs down? Keep more coal plants running, according to a recent Department of Energy report based on dubious assumptions.
The CATF has a different answer. On Tuesday morning, the Boston-based climate group issued a detailed 75-page report on how to shore up the grid, which boils down to one thing: better planning.
“The federal government continues to undermine deployment of clean electricity resources,” Kasparas Spokas, CATF’s electricity program director, told Latitude Media. “Hopefully this report can provide a little bit of a roadmap for all the opportunities that remain in this environment.”
The recommendations to policymakers and grid operators break down in five categories:
- Make use of the existing power system by deploying more grid-enhancing and advanced transmission technologies; expand the availability of smart electric vehicle charging and load flexibility; and take advantage of routine maintenance opportunities on transmission lines to install reconductoring or “upsizing” technology.
- Make it easier to connect new generating assets to the grid by encouraging big customers such as data centers to sponsor new power generators; minimizing the need for transmission upgrades by facilitating co-location of generation and load in new “energy parks”; and streamlining the interconnection process for new power plants.
- Implement proactive planning and procurement processes to better create the conditions to establish those “energy parks,” which includes designing new clean energy and economic development zones and proactively planning distribution systems around these new zones.
- Make electricity cheaper by wasting less of it through expanded energy efficiency and bill assistance programs for low-income ratepayers; providing more funding for demand-management programs; and adopting more flexible approaches to big energy user demand.
- Improve interregional transmission so power can flow from where it’s generated in abundance today to where it’s needed.
“We’re under a multi-headed crunch right now in terms of pressure on the system, on policymakers and on regulators to deliver electricity,” Nicole Pavia, CATF’s director of clean energy infrastructure, told Latitude Media. “And we’re facing many, many challenges to getting electricity deployed affordably and reliably.”
The DOE report issued earlier this month appeared to inflate future load growth and discount the potential for batteries and renewables to meet near-term demand. That’s despite the fact that utilities such as NextEra are now looking to wind and solar to serve as a “bridge” to more gas plants given the years-long waits for combined cycle gas turbines.
Pavia said the federal analysis seems geared primarily toward “keeping uneconomical plants online.” If implemented, she warned, the DOE report “will probably lead to or incentivize the development of new fossil fuel plants and new fossil generation.”
“Yet we also know gas turbines are constrained,” she said. “So those are not necessarily near-term fixes that can be relied upon to meet demand growth.” Failing to grapple with that reality, she said, invites political blowback.
“Rates are going up, customers are already feeling crunched on bills, and maintaining the affordability of the energy transition is really important to providing that social license for the transition,” Pavia said. “We need to do more proactive planning at all levels.”
