Squeezing $170 Billion Out of the Grid We Already Have
Plus: The largest offshore wind farm in the US goes online, Virginia’s new Chief Energy Officer, and more
Welcome to The Grid Unlock, where we focus on the tangible steps we can take to overcome the bottlenecks and barriers to transforming our energy system. Subscribe today and join a community of energy leaders and advocates focused on turning "gridlock" into The Grid Unlock.
🔑 Key Insight: $170B on the Table
Like we talked about in our last edition, the grid today is planned for the highest-demand hours of the year plus a margin, which incentivizes power companies to pursue expensive upgrades that mostly serve rare peaks. A new report from The Brattle Group highlights that better grid utilization could save customers up to $170 billion on their electricity bills over the next decade.
The report (which was created for Utilize Coalition and GridLab) makes a simple point: we don’t just need more grid—we need to use the grid we already have better.
It comes down to three moves:
Put new load where the grid has room: A lot of the system is underused. If we build in the right places, we can avoid expensive upgrades, while providing new capacity for grid soft spots or constrained areas.
Shift load to when the grid has room: We plan the grid for peak hours—but most hours aren’t peak. Flexible customers can take advantage of that and lower costs for everyone.
Create more room by cutting peaks: Batteries, smart devices, and managed charging can reduce strain during the most constrained hours—freeing up space for new demand.
Take a deeper dive: Deploy Action’s executive director Arnab Pal makes the case for grid utilization on Energy Empire: the unglamorous, cost-cutting strategy that governors, regulators, and utilities are finally starting to pay attention to.
🔦Spotlight: Virginia’s Power Plays
Wind in the Wires: It’s official—Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind has started delivering power to the grid. Operated by Dominion Energy, it’s the largest offshore wind farm in the US and comes online within days of the Trump administration paying French energy company TotalEnergies to abandon other offshore wind projects (to the tune of $1 billion in taxpayer dollars).
Big Legislative Wins: Virginia lawmakers passed a long, long list of bills this session that are designed to make power cleaner and cheaper for families in the Commonwealth, including a first-of-its-kind grid utilization bill, as well as legislation on battery storage, geothermal, balcony solar, and much more. Gov. Spanberger ran and won on an affordability agenda and appears to be “primed to deliver on that pledge in spades” alongside lawmakers. A number of bills have already been signed, with others awaiting the governor’s signature.
New Leadership: Gov. Spanberger also created a new cabinet-level Chief Energy Officer position to take on both reliability and affordability, appointing Josephus Allmond to the role. Allmond noted that “maximizing the use of our existing grid” will be one of the ways he ensures “that our energy future remains sustainable, predictable, and—most importantly—affordable for Virginians.”
Bonus: Affordability and Grid Utilization in California: Grid utilization is on the docket in California this session. Senator Becker’s (D-13) SB 905 requires the California Public Utilities Commission to consider creating better targets for use of distribution infrastructure. Sponsored by TURN - The Utility Reform Network, the bill would also set clearer expectations for utility performance, and prioritizes aligning utility shareholder profits and executive compensation with their ability to keep costs manageable for customers.
🤝 Let’s Hang Out: Upcoming Events
2026 Clean Energy Affordability Summit(Tuesday, April 14 in Sacramento)
Deploy Action, California Forward, and UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute invite you to the inaugural 2026 Clean Energy Affordability Summit, a half-day policy convening focused on the legislative priorities and system-level reforms needed for a true "California Fix" in a critical election year.
#SFClimateWeek: Accelerating the Transition Conference 2026 (Saturday, April 18 through Monday, April 20 in San Francisco)
Deploy Action has been working behind the scenes to help shape the programming at Accelerating the Transition, which willbring together the policymakers, investors, clean tech leaders, and advocates driving real climate solutions. A few to put on your radar:
Sunday, April 19 at 10am – Expanding Power Transmission Capacity: Siting and Reconductoring Utility Transmission and Distribution Systems and Expediting Grid Access and Utilization for Renewable Energy Projects
Sunday, April 19 at 1pm – Expanding and Fast-Tracking Siting and Production of Biomass, Wind, Solar, Geothermal, and Energy Storage Capacity
Monday, April 20 at 2pm – Featured Panel on Climate Communications
Monday, April 20 at 3pm – Where's the Money? Public and Private Partnerships and Bringing Capital to Scale Clean Energy and Climate Resilience
Monday, April 20 at 4pm – Grid Utilization and Optimization
#SFClimateWeek: Consumers and the Future of Energy Affordability: The Issues, the Policies and the Midterms(Wednesday, April 22 in San Francisco)
Energy bills are top of mind for families, technology is moving fast, and the midterms are just around the corner. What's the roadmap to a resilient and affordable energy future? And how might the upcoming midterms influence what comes next? Arnab Pal will discuss questions like these and more with Neil Chatterjee and Christopher Kemper.
📥 Don’t Miss the Next Edition
Our clean energy transition is stuck in a holding pattern. We’re trying to power a modern world using a vintage playbook: aging wires, chronic underinvestment, and red tape that keeps the most affordable power sources offline. It’s a "past-tense" approach that leaves consumers footing the bill for a system that is becoming both more expensive and less reliable.
But The Grid Unlock isn’t another newsletter about the problem; it’s a toolkit for the solution. We’re moving past the "gridlock" to highlight the policies, technologies, and investments that will actually move the needle.
Subscribe today to hear about the leaders, advocates, and ideas finally clearing the path toward a modernized, resilient energy future–turning the bottleneck into a breakthrough.