A Reuters Events report highlights how multi-year transmission delays are forcing data center developers in the United States to deploy 56 GW of on-site generation while turning to Virtual Power Plants to unlock fast capacity.
Rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers, manufacturing, and electrification is colliding directly with long-standing grid interconnection bottlenecks across the United States. With long-distance transmission infrastructure taking up to 15 years to build, clean energy developers and tech hyperscalers are turning to on-site power and distributed energy resources to bridge the gap.
According to a whitepaper by Reuters Events, U.S. electricity consumption is projected to grow by 25% to 50% by 2050.
At the same time, grid interconnection queues reached over 2,200 GW of planned capacity in mid-2026, far surpassing the nation’s total installed capacity of 1,400 GW.
While investor-owned utilities plan $1.1 trillion in grid investments through 2029 and regional transmission operators (RTOs) like the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and Midcontinent Independent System Operator build out 765 kV extra high-voltage backbones, those transmission lines face six- to seven-year buildouts.
