New NEMA Study Shows Widening Gap Between Surging Power Demand and Grid Capacity

Updated Forecast Projects U.S. Electricity Demand Growth Exceeding 55% by 2050, Identifies Grid-Enhancing Technologies and Behind-the-Meter Solutions as Essential Near-Term Capacity Resources

ARLINGTON, Va. - The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) today released an updated edition of its landmark A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future study along with a suite of new reports outlining the promise and potential of Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs), Behind-the-Meter (BTM) resources, and Demand Response to meet intensifying grid reliability, resilience, and affordability challenges - as well as the policy measures needed to deploy these solutions at scale.

The 2026 edition of A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future, updated by NEMA's Economics and Business Intelligence researchers, now projects U.S. electricity demand will rise more than 55% by 2050 - with the steepest growth concentrated in the current decade. The updated study finds that data centers alone are projected to account for 38% of net electricity consumption through 2037, driven by aggressive hyperscaler capital expenditure and the accelerating energy intensity of artificial intelligence workloads. Electric mobility electricity consumption is projected to grow 2,000% through 2050, and electricity's overall share of final energy delivered is expected to grow from 18% to 28% over the same period.

"A year ago, we sounded the alarm on the scale of what was coming," said NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips. "Today's update makes clear that the trajectory has only steepened. The good news is that we don't have to wait for the next generation of infrastructure to begin closing the gap between grid capacity and real needs. Grid-Enhancing Technologies, Behind-the-Meter resources, and Demand Response are available now, proven at scale, and ready to deploy. As NEMA is advocating in Washington and beyond, what's needed is the policy framework, investment certainty, and regulatory clarity to invest, build, and deploy at the speed this moment demands."

Together, NEMA's updated A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future study and companion technical reports on GETs, BTM resources, and Demand Response make the case that the innovative technologies needed to address America's grid capacity shortfalls are commercially available today, and that concerted, urgent action by policymakers is needed to deploy them quickly and at scale.

Among other implications, NEMA's updated forecast meaningfully diverges from recent projections published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), reflecting NEMA's assessment that the rate of change in data center power demand - and the broader electrification trend - is outpacing what conventional forecasting models are capturing.

NEMA's new study identifies a significant mismatch between the pace of demand growth and the pace of infrastructure delivery. While ultimately essential, traditional transmission and distribution expansion nevertheless require permitting, siting, and construction timelines that regularly exceed five years. At the same time, new large loads like data centers are being commissioned on timelines measured in months, not years.

"What we're seeing unfold on the grid is not a problem for the future - it's a real and intensifying present-day challenge," said MacLean Power Systems President Mike Plaster. "Demand is growing faster than the grid can physically expand, creating costly and potentially hazardous transmission and distribution capacity constraints. The answer isn't to stop building wires. It's to deploy advanced conductors, power flow controllers, microgrids, and other advanced systems to maximize the capacity of infrastructure that's already built and online."

NEMA's new technical reports on GETs, BTM resources, and Demand Response identify near-term, emerging solutions to make the grid more efficient, flexible, and resilient - including by transmitting more power over existing lines; distributing power generation, storage, and control resources; and optimizing the performance of large loads. Additionally, in each of these reports, NEMA outlines a host of policies that lawmakers and regulators can pursue to accelerate deployment of these technologies.

"Power demand is outpacing the ability to build new infrastructure. The grid needs long-term solutions that can modernize that infrastructure today," said S&C Electric Company President and CEO Anders Sjoelin. "The NEMA study correctly highlights the importance of deploying today's proven technologies to improve grid performance. At S&C, we see the greatest opportunity on the distribution grid, where 90% of outages occur. Automation and smart technologies on this portion increase grid resilience and have measurable impacts on power reliability."

To view the 2026 edition of A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future, click here. Also available on MakeItElectric.org are NEMA's technical reports on Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs), Behind-the-Meter (BTM) resources, and Demand Response.

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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 580,000 American jobs, adding more than $330 billion to the U.S. economy. Learn more at makeitelectric.org

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