EEI’s Drew Maloney Talks Grid Innovation, Affordability, and Mutual Assistance on The Deciders Podcast

EEI's Drew Maloney Talks Grid Innovation, Affordability, and Mutual Assistance on The Deciders Podcast

EEI's Drew Maloney Talks Grid Innovation, Affordability, and Mutual Assistance on The Deciders Podcast

WASHINGTON (May 27, 2026) - On a new episode of The Deciders podcast, EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney joined Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Brody Mullins and veteran D.C. strategist Lisa Camooso Miller to discuss rising electricity demand, responsible data center growth, grid innovation, and challenges facing customers in the PJM Interconnection market.

Maloney also highlighted EEI 2026, EEI's annual meeting and thought leadership conference, taking place next week in Las Vegas on June 2-4, where industry leaders will tackle these issues.

Keynote speakers will include Georgia Gov. Brian J. Kemp, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, FERC Commissioner David LaCerte, Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch, Alphabet and Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, Digital Realty President and CEO Andy Power, Emerald AI CEO and Founder Varun Sivaram, NVIDIA's Marc Spieler, and NBC Sports' Mike Tirico.

Listen to the full episode here.

Convening Energy and Technology Leaders at EEI 2026 in Las Vegas (June 2-4): "This is the leading conference for electricity leadership throughout the United States. We're going to have leaders of our companies in Las Vegas, along with leaders of tech companies, our partnerships, and government officials. It's a great opportunity to highlight some of these innovative technologies that we're using that are making the grid more reliable, safer, and keeping costs down-it's really the place to be if you're in electricity."

Affordability and Customer Value: "I think the challenge right now is that we're in this affordability debate where people are struggling-whether it's groceries, food, healthcare, or energy prices. Every company is dealing with this and addressing it with their customers. We have programs that help customers who can't pay their bills, that can stretch out payments. Every single company is wrestling with this issue.

"But I think what we have to do is keep reminding people of the value that we provide. If you think about your home, there are about 21 connected devices right now-your smartphones, your computers, your televisions-and on top of that, there are probably another 75 things that get plugged in… your hair dryer, your water heater, your electric toothbrush. All of this requires power. What our job during this time period is to remind people of that value-that for basically the cost of a box of cereal every day, all of those devices work. And that's really an incredible feat."

Permitting Reform: "It takes up to a decade or longer to build transmission lines or generation facilities because of the permitting process… The cost of that delay can be up to 25 percent of a project. So if Congress wants to do something about affordability with electricity prices, this is a great first step."

Data Centers and Downward Pressure on Rates: "Data centers can actually put downward pressure on rates. There have been 23 states with large-load agreements… You've had rate freezes in Alabama and Georgia and cost reductions in Louisiana, Indiana, and Michigan."

Dispelling Data Center Myths: "So much of our daily life involves data centers that we don't see-whether it's online shopping, posting a meme on the internet, online banking, or health records… We have to talk about the benefits to customers and dispel the myths that electricity rates are going up because of data centers-because they're not."

Community Engagement: "You have to be transparent about what you're doing as a data center in a community, and you can't engage early enough. We've had a history of more than 100 years in most of these communities providing power. We know what it takes to have that customer relationship-and they need to do that as well, and they can partner with us in a lot of cases."

Grid Innovation and Technology: "If you go into one of our control centers, it's like a starship inside. You can see your entire grid and know what's happening in one town versus another. If you have cold weather here and warmer weather there, you can keep moving things around to make the system as efficient as possible… You probably couldn't do that 20 years ago. It's an amazing amount of investment to make the system work better and be more resilient, more reliable for our customers."

Fixing PJM and Building New Generation: "The deregulated market in PJM is broken, and customers are paying the price. The power generators-which can be 50 percent or more of your bill in these markets-are unregulated… Everyone-including the White House-has acknowledged that the PJM market is not working and that it has to get fixed. We need more steel in the ground. We don't really care who builds it. We'll build it. They can build it. But somebody needs to start building… Otherwise, if nobody's building, generators are going to keep making more money and customers are going to keep paying."

Mutual Assistance and Storm Response: "What people don't understand about our industry is we have this huge mutual assistance program… [For Winter Storm Fern,] we mobilized 65,000 workers from 44 states, working 24/7 in really tough conditions. If there's a line down in a particular county, we know we can send the crew out there… If you need a transformer in Alabama and there's one in Idaho, we'll get it there. It's an amazing collective effort to keep the lights on."

Energy of Everyday Campaign: "The idea is to remind people of the value of what we provide. There's so much that happens in your daily life-from when you wake up to when you go to work to when you come home-that electricity drives… It's an amazing story, and that's what the Energy of Everyday campaign is telling."