Powering Progress: Biden’s GRIP Awards, IEA’s Energy Outlook, and AI Innovation at gridCONNEXT®

This week, big news from the energy sector has sparked optimism and conversation about the future of the electric grid. The Biden Administration announced a new round of awards under the Grid Resilience and Innovative Partnerships (GRIP) program, allocating nearly $2 billion across 38 projects. This funding will enable over 7.5 gigawatts of grid capacity nationwide, strengthening the grid’s backbone and boosting resilience for millions of customers. Special congratulations go to our GridWise Alliance member, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which received one of the program’s largest awards. With GRIP’s backing, TVA will undertake 84 resilience projects across its 8-state region, adding more than 2,400 MW of transmission grid capacity, significantly reducing its solar interconnection backlog, and aiming to slash outage times by an estimated 94%.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its latest World Energy Outlook, delivering striking projections that underscore a sharp rise in global electricity demand. By 2035, the IEA expects electricity’s share of total energy consumption to increase from today’s 20% to as much as 36%, with China’s demand alone surpassing that of all other advanced economies combined by 2030. Another fascinating forecast: within six years, nearly every other car sold worldwide will be electric, and clean energy is projected to meet the rising demand head-on. The IEA also highlighted a huge growth driver for electricity use—data centers. Their report estimates that by 2026, the energy consumption of data centers globally could exceed 1,000 TWh, doubling today’s usage.

This surge in electricity demand is a topic front and center at this year’s gridCONNEXT® conference. At this two-day gathering of experts and innovators, we’ll not only tackle the power needs driven by AI, cryptocurrency, and new domestic manufacturing but also explore the utility sector’s groundbreaking applications of AI across operations. It’s a topic close to our hearts at GridWise; this year, our AI Working Group has been delving into how utilities can use AI to improve operational efficiency, support personnel productivity, and manage data effectively. In addition to hosting a workshop this summer, the group is crafting a white paper on AI in the utility sector.

Interested in joining the gridCONNEXT® conversation? There’s still time to register, and we have creative sponsorship opportunities available, from logo placement during meals to branding on attendee lanyards.

Sincerely,

Karen Wayland