Why the U.S. Uses Only Half of Its Grid Capacity

By most accounts, the United States appears poised to fall woefully short of meeting new electricity demand over the next five years as data centers and domestic manufacturing proliferate.Ian MagruderIan Magruder is the founder of Utilize Coalition and previously served as director of market mobilization at Rewiring America, an affordable electrification advocacy group.Building new power plants and transmission lines may seem like the obvious solution, but there are other options, says Ian Magruder, founder of Utilize Coalition, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. The U.S. uses only about half of its grid capacity, and a lot more power could be tapped by deploying a spate of newly available technologies.Backed by Google, Tesla, HVAC systems manufacturer Carrier, and several other companies, Utilize Coalition advocates for more thorough use of grid capacity through policy change and new technologies. Magruder spoke with IEEE Spectrum about those efforts.Why does the United States use