NEMA Brings Grid Innovation to Capitol Hill, Underscores Supply Chain Certainty as Key to a Secure, Affordable Grid

WASHINGTON, DC - The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) today brought Congress and the nation's leading electrical manufacturers together on Capitol Hill for the 2026 Congressional Grid Innovation Expo, showcasing technologies that strengthen grid reliability, resilience, security, and affordability. Since 2017, the bipartisan Expo has connected policymakers with the manufacturers building the grid of the future.

The Expo was hosted in partnership with the GridWise Alliance (GridWise), the American Critical Minerals Association (ACMA), and the Congressional Grid Innovation Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives Bob Latta (R-OH) and Marilyn Strickland (D-WA). NEMA thanks Reps. Latta and Strickland and participating lawmakers for their support. Attendees toured exhibits from 16 NEMA member companies and partner organizations.

This year's event placed particular emphasis on supply chain certainty as a means toward energy security and affordability, a theme that's grown particularly relevant in Washington as data centers, buildings and transportation electrification, and accelerating reindustrialization increasingly test the limits of the grid. For the first time, the ACMA joined as a formal Expo partner, reflecting growing recognition that grid security, reliability, and expansion depends as much on access to raw materials as it does on finished equipment.

NEMA's latest analysis projects that U.S. electricity demand will rise more than 55% by 2050, with the steepest growth coming this decade.

"This growth represents an enormous economic opportunity, but only if the grid and its supply chain can keep pace," said NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips in remarks opening the Expo. "Meeting that demand goes beyond generating more electricity. We must get the most from our existing grid, by maximizing our ability to move, manage, store, and protect the systems that deliver electricity. The technologies on display may look like the future, but they are already here: proven solutions that strengthen reliability, improve resilience, enhance security, and help keep electricity affordable."

Phillips noted that NEMA represents more than 300 companies that build the transformers, switchgear, conductors, motors, controls, and energy storage systems the grid depends on - and that every one of those technologies begins with materials and minerals sourced from the U.S. and around the world.

"Predictable access to critical minerals and raw materials is essential to manufacturing innovation, supply-chain resilience, and grid reliability," Phillips said. "Without reliable access to those inputs, production slows, costs rise, and innovation stalls."

NEMA, GridWise, ACMA, and exhibitors used the Expo to engage lawmakers on three urgent issues: expanding domestic grid equipment manufacturing, securing access to critical raw materials, and creating long-term market certainty for U.S. manufacturers.

Notably, on market certainty, the coalition of industry advocates called for supporting implementation of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act's domestic content requirements for federally funded infrastructure projects through passage of the BUILD America 250 Act, which would recognize certification via NEMA's Make it America® program as "sufficient evidence" of compliance with those provisions.

NEMA, its partners, and its member companies will continue working with Congress, federal agencies, and industry partners to advance the policies discussed at the Expo.

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About NEMA

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) represents over 300 electrical equipment manufacturers that make safe, reliable, and efficient products and technologies that power, connect, and light our world. Together, our members contribute a full 1% of U.S. GDP and directly provide over 590,000 American jobs, adding more than $375 billion to the U.S. economy. Learn more at makeitelectric.org

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