By PSC Chair Charlotte Lane
Projections for increased electric usage this year and next remain strong.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says American electric consumption this year and in 2026 will exceed the record for usage reached last year.
Until 2024, the electric market essentially had been flat for most of this decade and at a very low point in 2020.
The demand for electricity during the first two decades existed. But consumption levels were offset by efficiency improvements and other structural changes in the economy.
Those changes included a shift away from traditional manufacturing in the United States – and other developed countries – to service industries. And those industries tend to use less power than manufacturing.
Now, the federal government is projecting growth of 1.7 percent through next year.
This forecasted upsurge is attributed primarily to commercial and industrial sector growth.
For instance, commercial growth is projected to increase by 2.6 percent, while the industrial sector should increase 2.1 percent.
Forecasts involving the residential sector are lower. Usage there will depend on weather changes. Nevertheless, residential usage still is expected to increase 0.7 percent through next year.
Much of the recent and forecasted growth, the Energy Information Administration says, comes from the commercial sector in the form of building and expanding of data centers and in the industrial sector through the expansion of manufacturing establishments.
While this is good news, one of the big remaining questions is the supply of electricity. And certainly, central to that is reliability.
The administration in Washington is making efforts to develop or rebuild American manufacturing, and here at home we are trying to develop data centers, as well as attracting more manufacturing plants.
Vast increases for demand will spur greater efforts at developing the electric grids that carry the power to various locations.
The administration’s goal is to seek energy independence for the United States.
This is an important step forward for the nation and one that will not be achieved without some strong efforts on behalf of both government and private sector companies.
