The power delivery system is being challenged from all quarters and it’s a little overwhelming. Load demand is projected to increase by more than 10% by 2030 while dealing with extreme weather impacts. Hyperscale datacenters have growing energy needs. Exacerbating the problem is an industry transitioning from fossil-fuel generation to clean energy. Also there’s the insufficient transmission capacities to deliver the customers’ electric-power. There’s more, but this gets the point across.
The industry has been doing everything practical to balance supply and demand. Still more is required. All indications show the conventional technologies have reached their limits when it comes to efficient utilization of the power delivery systems infrastructure. It seems that it’s time to concentrate on more non-traditional approaches. One of the most popular of those has been artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-enhanced tools. They have had a positive affect, but their use has upped datacenters’ power consumption, adding other issues.
According to the research company, ResearchAndMarkets, the global hyperscale datacenter market will grow from USD 162.79 billion in 2024 to USD 608.54 billion by 2030. That’s a 24.6% compounded annual growth rate! They attribute the growth to “Enterprises’ growing adoption of cloud computing.” In other words, the use of AI-related technologies will continue, requiring a resilient electric-power system.
Future-Gen is Here
With all of these issues, there’s a great deal of interest in what to expect and what topics to watch in 2025. Back in February 2025, Rick Bush and I were asked to do a podcast for T&D World (https://www.tdworld.com/electric-utility-operations/podcast/55269682/td-world-podcast-lessons-from-the-past-challenges-for-the-future) discussing the present and future the power grid’s evolving technologies. Of course that opened a wide area for us.
Today’s novel technologies represent both business opportunities and challenges, but many people view many of these technologies as in the future. Rick, however, addressed that twist. His comment was, “The future is already here, it’s just not widely distributed yet!”
Let’s look into that statement a little deeper. One group of future-gen applications that seem too good to be true are found in the emerging grid-enhancing technologies (GETs). Honestly, GETs applications are not in the science fiction realm. They’re off-the-shelf grid-tools that are available from many suppliers in our competitive marketplace. Since space is limited, let’s look at a couple of GET applications that have been featured in “Charging Ahead” columns previously.
Advanced conductors and dynamic line rating (DLR) technologies have been accessible for many years. They’re a commercial technology and are making tremendous impacts where they’re being used. Still, they’re meeting resistance deployment-wise, yet studies have shown that DLR can add 20% to 30% more capacity to an existing power line. Advanced conductors can carry two to three times the amount of power than traditional conductors of the same size. Using both of these technologies would put a huge dent in the 2030 decarbonization goals for adding to the grid’s transmission capacity.
Legacy thinking, along with each utility’s insistence on performing their own analysis, is a significant roadblock when it comes to adopting new methods. How often have new ideas been met with that old saying, “We’ve never done it this way” response. Over the past few years the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a series of orders that will encourage utilities and grid operators to include GETs in their planning studies. Hopefully, that will help overcome this resistance.
Change is Coming
Why is there resistance to such innovation? It’s complicated; change makes us uncomfortable. New technologies require knowledge of the applications before we’re confident with them. Also, it doesn’t help that these advancements are happening at warp speed. Still, as Rick pointed out, “Innovation always overcomes resistance because resistance can only delay, and delay is costly.” Sometimes it’s external factors that motivate innovation like hyperscale datacenters sucking massive amounts of electric-power off the grid 24/7.
Getting back to the podcast, we kicked around the small modular reactors (SMRs) technology a bit. Years ago, SMRs were introduced as a mobile reactor for use with microgrids. We discussed them finding a niche as datacenter power supplies, but technologies don’t stand still. Now it’s a technology that’s needing another updating because it’s getting closer to being shelf-ready. SMRs are moving into the status of “near-term deployment” as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) puts it.
IAEA reports that there are more than 80 SMR designs globally. Most of these are in various stages of development, but there are “some claiming as being near-term deployable.” In addition, Texas A&M announced they were making land available to four nuclear companies to fast-track the deployment of their SMRs. A&M calls the project, “The Energy Proving Ground.” Hyperscale datacenter developers have been cutting their own deals with SMR manufacturers, but SMR technology has been attracting interest in many areas.
A bit of background - the New York Times recently reported that about 780 large coal-fired powerplants have been retired since 2000 leaving less than 400 of these fossil-fueled powerplants in service. Many of these units are also earmarked for retirement, which has received attention because the loss of inertia these plants represent. That’s an issue that has inspired growing interest from other power grid stakeholders. DOE (Department of Energy) recently published a coal-to-nuclear transition information guide that’s chock full of data.
DOE explained that hundreds of these powerplants that have been or will be retired could be converted to clean energy resources utilizing SMRs. It not only saves construction costs, but it keeps the rotating machines that produce inertia in service. Plus they’re already connected to the power grid via existing transmission lines. This different application is being assessed by stakeholders for its feasibility. There’s a lot going for SMRs and the power grid, so it’s a trend that deserves watching.
New and Improved
While digging into the SMR technology another clean energy power technology popped up that has potential. It’s the latest variation of geothermal energy technology called “enhanced geothermal power systems.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) is excited about enhanced geothermal projects. IEA predicts they could account for up to 15% of global energy up from 1% today. Like the SMR technology, enhanced geothermal power plants can operate at their maximum capacity continuously.
Advancements in technology are multifaceted. One area that’s promising is the “superhot rock formations located deep in the Earth. Deep well drilling is a proven process from the oil and gas industry. These wells average two miles (3.1 km) in depth, but that’s not a limitation. Deeper wells make enhanced geothermal power systems work anywhere on the Earth. Like the SMR applications, deeper wells can be drilled at retired or about to be retired fossil-fuel powerplants, and provide another method of repowering them with clean energy.
This isn’t the only advanced technology being explored for enhanced geothermal power applications. Several geothermal developers are taking advantage of AI, horizontal drilling, distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) and others. The horizontal drilling allows for creating heat gathering mesh-loops to be installed in hot subsurface rock formations. DFOS uses fiber optic cables to provide real-time monitoring of subterranean conditions. AI has many applications from translating the data generated underground to determining the best locations to site new geothermal projects.
Remember that saying location, location, location? It’s valid even with enhanced geothermal power application. DOE has reported a groundbreaking process called, “Wells of Opportunity (WOO),” and it’s a hot topic. When oil and gas wells stop producing, they are capped, abandoned, or in some case orphaned by the developers. Both abandoned and orphaned wells are a massive problem in oil-patch. Estimates place abandoned wells in the U.S. around 3.5 million with orphaned wells near 120,000. The DOE has a suggestion, why not turn them into a commercially viable geothermal power plants? The holes exist, the technology to convert them into electric-power producers is available. DOE wants to bring them together.
The smart grid has gotten smarter as our industry moved into the twenty-first century. Intelligent toolsets that have taken decades in development are available in today’s marketplace. As we discussed, there are many cases where they haven’t been deployed yet because of a myriad of reasons. Regulator issues and problems have taken their toll. Installing them isn’t cheap and there are big up-front costs for the transition. There’s an uncertainty on the part of stakeholders due to a lack of knowledge of the new applications, and that’s only a small portion the hesitancies.
Legacy technologies have been updated and upgraded, but those are band-aids, and they have reached their limitations. We have found more is needed to modernize our power delivery system. Once we are comfortable living with these future-gen technologies, we’ll wonder how we were able to live without them. Not to mention why did it take so long to make the transition? Of course it’s going to be uncomfortable, and it’s disruptive, but it’s also exciting. The future is here, so hold on tight!
