# How US utilities are adapting to a high-growth world for power demand. The head of America's largest electricity industry group explains the critical role played by regulators

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131/how-us-utilities-are-adapting-to-a-high-growth-world-for-power-demand-the-head-of-america-s-largest-electricity-industry-group-explains-the-critical-role-played-by-regulators
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131/how-us-utilities-are-adapting-to-a-high-growth-world-for-power-demand-the-head-of-america-s-largest-electricity-industry-group-explains-the-critical-role-played-by-regulators.md
Podcast: [Energy Gang](https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131)
Published: 2026-05-19T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/rss.art19.com/episodes/91bb8a86-4039-4a2b-83f0-03d6d992af07.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 2892

## Resource

The era of stagnant electricity demand in the US is over. Data centres, electrification, and reshoring of manufacturing are driving a surge in demand that is stronger that anything that anyone currently working in the industry has yet seen in their professional lifetimes. The question of which market and regulatory structures are needed to respond to this new and fast-changing world is now at the centre of the policy debate. Host Ed Crooks is joined by Drew Maloney, President and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade body representing America's investor-owned utilities, which together serve more than 70 per cent of the US population. Drew argues that the current moment is exposing a fundamental divide in the US power system: vertically integrated, regulated utilities can plan generation, transmission, and distribution over 20-year horizons, while competitive markets like PJM are struggling to send the investment signals needed to get new power plants built. The conversation starts with one of the hottest topics in US politics: affordability and household electricity bills. There are some misconceptions about electricity bills that have gained traction with the American public. Drew points to EEI research showing that 34 states have kept increases in electricity rates below general consumer price inflation over the past five years. And he adds that the states where prices are rising fastest tend to be in deregulated markets, where capacity costs are climbing but no new generation is being built. Ed draws on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2025 study of electricity bills and data centres ( You can read that study here .). That study found that demand growth alone did not explain rising bills, and that the drivers vary significantly by regi…

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