The future of the grid: Can new technologies deliver more electricity without building more infrastructure?

America needs more electricity, but building new power lines takes time. Some transmission projects in the US have taken more than 20 years to complete. Many others have been blocked completely. With power demand rising rapidly, driven by AI data centres, electrification and industrial growth, the pressure is on to find ways to make better use of the grid we already have. Could smarter technology unlock the capacity needed to keep the lights on and energy bills under control? In the second of two special episodes of the Energy Gang recorded at the ACORE Grid Forum in Washington, DC, host Ed Crooks explores the technologies that could help America's electricity system meet growing demand without waiting years for new infrastructure to be built.Ed is joined first by Georg Rute, chief executive of Gridraven, a company developing grid-enhancing technologies that use advanced weather forecasting to increase the amount of electricity that existing transmission lines can carry. Georg explains how dynamic line ratings can unlock additional capacity by accounting for changing weather conditions, allowing utilities to move more power through their networks without adding new infrastructure. He discusses why adoption may have seemed slow so far, and argues that the technology is just beginning to take off.Next Jeff Bladen, head of energy at data centre developer Verrus, explores how the sites that are a big part of the growing strain on the grid can also be part of the solution. He explains how integrating large-scale battery storage into data centres can allow them to reduce their demand on the grid during periods of peak stress, without interrupting computing operations. The conversation examines whether flexible data centres could connect to the grid more quickly, and why “islanded” off-grid power systems represent a missed opportunity.Then Ed speaks to Carla Pinzón, founder and chief executive of Expand Power Technologies, about the potential of solid-state transformers to modernise the electricity system. Traditional transformers have changed little in more than a century, and growing demand has pushed equipment lead times to several years. Carla explains how new semiconductor-based technology could provide a smaller, more flexible alternative, capable of managing both AC and DC electricity and supporting solar power, batteries and data centres. Finally, Ed is joined by Ray Long, president and chief executive of ACORE, to reflect on the key themes emerging from