Jun 25, 2026 · 31m · catalyst
How data centers are complicating transmission expansion
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Host Shayle Kann and reporter Maeve Allsup explore how surging data center power demand is complicating high-voltage transmission expansion across the United States. Focusing on the controversial Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line, they examine the regulatory, political, and cost-allocation battles emerging between tech hubs and out-of-state ratepayers.
Statements from this episode (6)
Kann: Power is the rate limiter to AI growth
“And understanding the multiple factors that drive failure of new transmission, I think, is key to understanding why power is, in my opinion, The rate limiter to AI growth, and why upward pressure on electricity prices will probably sustain for a while.”
Kann: US high-voltage transmission builds fell from ~4,000 miles to hundreds
“In 2013, we built nearly 4000 miles of high-voltage transmission in the United States. Over the past few years, we've averaged hundreds.”
NextEra plans 100-mile Mid-Atlantic transmission line across PJM
“It's a planned high voltage transmission line spanning about a 107, I think a little over a hundred miles in PJM. It would run from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia, crossing through Maryland and also a good chunk of West Virginia. It's being dev…”
NextEra aims to begin Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line construction in 2029
“They want to start construction in 2029, and the systems to make sure that data center customers can pay for that just don't exist.”
States use tech hyperscalers' ratepayer pledge to fight transmission tariffs
“In their complaints to FERC, for example, a bunch of states have cited that pledge, and I think that creates it's an opening for any time anyone wants to argue against however a tariff is getting structured, or a new transmission line, or whatever it might be …”
Allsup: Early opposition makes 2029 Mid-Atlantic transmission target unlikely
“The level of opposition, the force of that opposition at such an early stage, relatively I, I'm less than optimistic, I guess, about this particular project. I do think maybe a lot will depend on what FERC does in this parallel proceeding, but I feel like they…”