Full Title: 2025 Report Card for America's Infrastructure
Author(s): American Society of Civil Engineers
Publisher(s): American Society of Civil Engineers
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
As Americans increasingly depend on electrification in their daily lives, energy demand is experiencing its highest growth in two decades. An increase in electric vehicles (EVs) and a rise in data centers will demand 35 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2030 alone, up from 17 GW in 2022. This rapid acceleration, compounded by federal and state net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goals, means utilities will need to double existing transmission capacity to connect new renewable generation sources. Transmission investments have risen by $5 billion from 2017 to 2022, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are supporting renewable technologies and grid hardening measures. New investments come as weather accounts for 80% of electricity outages since 2000, most of which occurred in the last decade and within distribution systems that deliver power in the last miles from transmission systems to homes and businesses. Interregional connections accelerated by streamlined regulatory review, rigorous design standards, and resilient technologies must be implemented to ensure reliability in the years ahead.