Yet it’s a moment of incredible opportunity to grow the nation’s economy while driving investment in clean, affordable and resilient solutions. But to seize it, the U.S. needs commonsense policies to capitalize on existing infrastructure without raising power bills for homes and businesses.
Virginia is at the center of this national conversation. Its lawmakers have responded with a bipartisan solution to these challenges that should be a model for other states.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger recently signed a first-of-its-kind grid utilization law to measure how the existing power grid is performing and find ways to make it more efficient. It’s a crucial test case because what’s happening in her state — Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers in the world — is a preview of what’s coming everywhere.
The measurements that utilities will collect in Virginia are known as grid utilization metrics, and they are key to building power-hungry new infrastructure sustainably. A similar policy would be a win for lawmakers in states like Maryland, New Jersey and California, which also have bottlenecked, inefficient power transmission systems.
Most of the time, we’re only using about half of the power grid’s capacity. While it’s important to build additional capacity to avoid outages during extreme weather and other rare moments of high energy use, we can make the system much more efficient to accommodate new economic growth.
Imagine if our highway system was designed for the absolute peak of rush hour, with additional lanes added as a buffer. For most of the day, those lanes would sit underutilized. The smart thing to do is find a way to better use that existing space, rather than simply building new roads.
Under Virginia’s new law, utilities will now measure how much of the grid they use at times of peak demand and how much electricity is lost as it moves through the lines to power homes and businesses. They will use those metrics to optimize the grid and deploy solutions such as energy storage and other grid-enhancing technologies that can increase the capacity of the system without expanding its physical footprint and on a much faster timeline. That will allow the state to more fully use existing power lines instead of building costly new infrastructure, keeping energy affordable even as demand goes up.
Efficiency improvements will also make it easier to get more wind, solar and batteries onto the grid — making use of the cheapest and fastest ways to deploy new power. More reliable and readily available energy means more opportunities for companies in Virginia to grow.
The law isn’t a silver bullet, but it is an important first step in the critical process of modernizing aging electricity infrastructure. And it shows that bipartisan policy on clean energy and affordability is possible, despite sharp divides at the federal level.
Grid utilization metrics are increasingly supported by companies across industries, in part because the consensus-building effort is a win for all energy customers. It will supplement the work Virginia’s utilities are already doing to strengthen the electric grid.
It was bipartisanship in the legislature and cooperation among a community of advocates and businesses that brought this bill over the finish line roundly supported by both Republicans and Democrats. It passed with near-unanimous support in the Virginia House of Delegates.
That same bipartisan process is playing out in Maryland. Republicans in the Maryland legislature added an amendment on grid utilization metrics to Democrats’ energy affordability bill, and it passed with unanimous bipartisan support.
New Jersey would benefit from a similar policy. Gov. Mikie Sherrill was elected last fall on an ambitious suite of energy affordability proposals, like Gov. Spanberger in Virginia. Lawmakers in New Jersey should consider advancing a grid utilization metrics bill to better serve electricity ratepayers.
And in California, where legislators already enacted a slate of energy affordability legislation, lawmakers have proposed a grid utilization metrics bill similar to Virginia’s new law. It should be a top priority to send it to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a signature this year.
Maximizing the existing power grid is quickly becoming an economic imperative. Virginia just put a bipartisan solution on the national agenda that will help deliver a more prosperous — and cleaner — energy future. States across the U.S. should follow its lead.
Kelly Trombley leads the state policy team at Ceres, a nonprofit advocacy organization that works with businesses and investors to advance solutions for a cleaner, more resilient economy.
Governing's opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing's editors or management.
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