As households increasingly electrify appliances, heating and cooling systems, and shift to driving electric vehicles, utilities face new challenges to decarbonize and maintain customer affordability while meeting demand. By 2035, U.S. households have access to more than 1,500 GW of generation, energy storage and flexible demand capacity.
As demand continues to rise from domestic manufacturers, AI data centers, cryptocurrency miners, green hydrogen producers, and the electrification of transportation and buildings. If the Biden administration's goal of a fully decarbonized renewable energy grid by 2035 is met, peak demand will double to 1.4 TW by 2035.
Utility-scale renewable energy development is providing the bulk of this demand growth and displacing retired fossil fuel capacity. Grid interconnection delays are increasingly problematic due to the retirement of fossil-fueled power plants and the connection of new plants to limited transmission infrastructure, leading to project delays or cancellations.The backlog of primarily utility-scale renewable energy and energy storage projects awaiting grid interconnection grows to 2.6 TW in 2023, more than double the current installed capacity.
Studies in California and New York suggest that controlled electrification could reduce the cost of needed distribution upgrades in those states by more than $30 billion by 2035. Because building energy efficiency measures and smart devices to manage energy use and provide smooth electric vehicle charging can reduce capital expenditures for new substations, transformers, feeders and other distribution equipment.
Source：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/U_37yE72_XEcbCF7c9ryVw