WASHINGTON ― The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will hold roundtables on demand growth at each of its major conferences this year, Executive Director Tony Clark said at the United States Energy Association’s State of the Energy Industry Forum on Jan. 23.

The former FERC commissioner and North Dakota regulator was asked how NARUC is addressing the challenges of data centers and demand growth. NARUC is very good at convening and educating, he answered, which is exactly what it will do on the topic beginning with the Winter Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Each roundtable will have “21 people, who at each of the meetings [are] going to have a deep dialogue on just these issues. … Seven state commissioners, seven folks from the utility industry and seven folks from the demand side of the equation ― hyperscalers, data centers, things like that ― [will be] encouraging this kind of dialogue so we can get to, hopefully, some of the answers.”

Todd Snitchler, CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, pointed to the combination of different state clean energy goals and demand growth as driving market transformation.

Varying state climate goals have “challenged market operators in a way that is not something they were originally constructed to do,” Snitchler said. “So, we’re going through some growing pains in order to sort out how we deliver” reliable, affordable and increasingly clean power, he said.

The restarting of decommissioned nuclear plants ― Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania ― possibly to power co-located data centers “suggests that restructured markets are finding ways to deliver,” he said. “They are working to define innovative approaches in order to supply power in a way that is cost effective, and they can deploy perhaps new mechanisms in order to achieve those outcomes. That’s going to require a bit of a different approach and different thinking.”

With estimates of coming demand growth still rising, what’s needed are “rules of the road that make it clear about who pays how much [and] what is required for approvals. That will accelerate the process; that will help everyone navigate the situation in a fashion that I think is better and helps achieve the policy goals that the country has,” he said.

Clark called for federal-state cooperation to get more generation and transmission online, arguing that federal roadblocks on permitting are often the primary cause of delays, rather than state processes.

But he cautioned that simply federalizing permitting may not solve the issues. “It will actually promote longer lead times if you don’t reform the underlying problems that the federal government is having. … The federal government and states fighting over some issue rarely turns out well.”

Leveraging state resources and regulatory models must be part of the process. Clark is optimistic about working with new FERC Chair Mark Christie, also a former state regulator, who “has shown a willingness to really listen to the concerns of the states,” he said. (See President Trump Names Mark Christie as FERC Chair.)

When Nuclear?

Data centers’ voracious appetite for power is creating new momentum for nuclear energy, but questions remain about when new plants, including small modular reactors, will come online.

Maria Korsnick, CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, pointed to a growing industry pipeline of permitting applications at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including 23 for plant upgrades or license extensions.

“Just in the next few years, we expect nine site permit applications,” she said. “We expect five construction permits. We have two construction and operating permits,” along with the restarts of Palisades and Three Mile Island.

But to get new plants online, tax credits and other federal incentives for nuclear will be imperative, she said; for example, the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is providing $2.5 billion to support early deployments of SMRs.

Federal support will be critical for “early mover support” to building out critical supply chains pipelines for advanced nuclear, she said.

Arshad Mansoor, CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute, said the goal should be for nuclear to become “a catalog technology … that you can go to a catalog and buy. Gen III, Gen IV, small modular reactors … these are not catalog technologies, yet we need to deploy at least 10 of them before they become a catalog technology.”

With ongoing support from Congress and the National Laboratories, Mansoor said, next generation nuclear could go catalog in five or six years.

Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, said his members now estimate nuclear fusion plants will be putting electricity on the grid in the 2030s, “with about 85% saying in the first half” of the next decade.

Fusion ― which could produce massive amounts of power by combining, rather than splitting, atoms ― “is now moving from the place where it has that long, long horizon, to something that is indeed on the horizon and coming closer, and the reason is because we’re moving from the National Labs and the universities into the marketplace,” Holland said.

Started four years ago, the FIA has 40 members working to commercialize fusion and 100 affiliate members, representing “the whole big tent of … both supply chain and end users for fusion power,” he said. Another key sign of growth, the industry has raised more than $8 billion in private investment.

In 2023, Microsoft signed a power purchase agreement with fusion startup Helion, with a delivery date of 2028. Holland said fusion could be a comprehensive solution to a range of energy industry challenges “when we get it.” It will be always available and abundant, and he argued the U.S. has to get serious about winning the global race for it.

“Fusion should be treated just like every other emerging energy source has been treated,” he said. “That means public-private partnerships should be funded at significant levels,” similar to the ARDP.

Wildfires a ‘Societal Problem’

The closest reference to climate change came in a taped message from Pat Vincent-Collawn, interim CEO of the Edison Electric Institute. With wildfires still burning in Southern California, Vincent-Collawn acknowledged that fire threats have become “a year-round problem,” but they are “a societal problem that requires societal solutions.”

A major policy priority for EEI is the development of a comprehensive national strategy that focuses on adaptation, including “community protection, wildfire prevention, responsible investment and rapid recovery,” she said.

The Electricity You Don’t Use

Paula Glover, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, kicked off the final panel of the day by noting that no one thus far had talked about energy efficiency, which she argued should be “foundational” in discussions about demand growth.

“It almost sounds as if we assume there is nothing we can do,” and that demand will just continue to rise, Glover said. “But what really makes an impact on customers, whether they are business customers, large and small, or residential consumers, is the ability of people to use energy for whatever they need, but not as much.”

Whatever generation technology is used, efficiency should be a “first field, [so] that thing that you don’t use has far more value.”

One priority for ASE going forward is working with RTOs, such as MISO and PJM, on their implementation of FERC Order 2222, specifically as it applies to the integration of virtual power plants on the grid and measuring the value of the efficiency they can provide, Glover said.

She also believes that even as AI becomes pervasive, it will become more efficient. “So, when we’re thinking about increased generation [and] demand because of AI, we also know that 20 years from now, what AI uses today is probably going to go down because of that technology.

“And so, the argument is always, if you think about what industry can do when you’re planning, then you’re not building as much; you’re not buying as much; people aren’t using as much,” she said. “And we know it’s just going to get better, better, better as time goes on.”