U.S. Utilities Plan $1.4 Trillion Grid Investment by 2030

U.S. investor-owned utility companies are planning to invest $1.4 trillion in electricity infrastructure through 2030, more than double the amount spent in the previous decade, as surging demand from artificial intelligence data centers strains the nation's power grid.

The figure, drawn from capital expenditure plans of 51 utilities serving 250 million customers, marks a 27 percent increase from projections made a year earlier and a more than 20 percent rise from 2025 estimates. A majority of these utilities identified data centers as a primary driver of the spending surge, with over 30 specifically citing them as a key factor in growth and investment needs through the end of the decade. The plans also address aging infrastructure, grid improvements to withstand severe weather, increased electrification of transportation and heating, and population growth, though experts anticipate data centers will become the dominant force moving forward.

Data centers already consumed more than 4 percent of the country's total electricity in 2023, a figure projected to climb to 9 percent by 2030, according to the MIT Energy Initiative. Goldman Sachs Research forecasts a 220 percent global...