The U.S. electricity industry is facing a convergence of pressures unlike anything in its modern history. Since 2020, consumption has risen at 1.7% per year—nearly 17 times the prior decade’s rate—driven by data centers, electrification, and AI infrastructure. Equipment like transformers and turbines that once took months to procure now take years. Customer bills are rising fast enough to draw an angry response. And AI and data center companies, the largest electricity customers in the industry’s history, are prepared to bypass the grid entirely rather than wait years for a connection.
In a new report, Doug Bernard WEMBA’27 offers a practical framework for regulated utility executives navigating this squeeze. Advised by Mack Senior Fellow Scott Snyder and Professor Serguei Netessine, the 64-page report draws on interviews with more than 20 industry leaders and nearly 150 sources.
The report proposes a portfolio approach of identifying eleven strategic moves that hold up across any plausible future and six conditional bets tied to specific market signals. It includes practical tools: a large-load deal scorecard, a technology buying guide, and a quarterly signals dashboard framework.
The full report, Decision Levers for Energy Executives: Navigating Today’s Dynamic Environment, is available here.