Power grids may seem to be one of those utilities, run on long-term single-digit investment programs over long horizons
Power grids cannot be taken for granted anymore, investment budgets are not stuffy affairs and the programs are anything but long-term
Electricity's share of energy consumption, from green or not-so-green sources, is estimated by the IEA to rise six times faster as total energy demand, propelled by electrical vehicles, homes, data centers and industrial processes (notably electricity-intensive manufacturing of solar modules, batteries, electric vehicles and associated processes, such as refining of the related materials)
Demand for energy in developing countries, China and India on the fore, is increasing at a fast clip, supported by industrial growth and home demand (such as air-conditioning)
And last, upkeep of existing grid networks is a work in progress, weighing on demande for new equipment (such as transformers)
A clear sense of urgency in upgrade is pervasive and 'clean energy' generated by renewables, wind and solar, is a factor
Renewable energy projects are joining a queue in Europe to plug into the existing infrastructure because rapidly expanding production has already taken up the slack built in the grid to handle swings in energy production...with more, a lot more gigawatts in the pipeline or at late planning stages
To complicate the challenge further, individual energy producers, by way of rooftop solar panels, need to feed power back into the grid, reversing the usual flow of electricity
And the US is not far behind : the assessment by the US Department of Energy (Oct. 2023) points out that the power transmission system is running into both capacity constraints and technical obsolescence regarding long-distance electricity transfer
With big investment budgets, technological challenges and political urgency... the cable industry may warrant a closer look
