New DOE Initiative Seeks to Hasten US Grid Projects

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a program to accelerate large-scale power transmission and generation projects.

“The Speed to Power initiative will help ensure the United States has the power needed to win the global artificial intelligence race while continuing to meet growing demand for affordable, reliable and secure energy”, DOE said in a statement on its website.

To kickstart the initiative, DOE issued a Request for Information (RFI) for projects that the agency could prioritize for siting and permitting support, technical assistance or funding.

“DOE is interested in identifying geographic areas or zones where targeted federal investment in transmission, generation or grid infrastructure could unlock or accelerate large-scale economic activity tied to electric load growth”, stated the RFI, published online.

“These may include regions experiencing substantial near-term demand from data centers, manufacturing or other large load users, as well as areas with untapped development potential constrained by inadequate grid infrastructure”.

The RFI said, “In addition, DOE is requesting stakeholder input on how to best utilize its funding programs and authorities to rapidly expand energy generation and transmission grid capacity to meet electricity demand growth across the country in a reliable and affordable manner”.

Responses are due November 21.

According to a DOE report July 2025, 104 gigawatts (GW) of firm capacity are set to be retired in the U.S. by 2030. While the DOE’s analysis projects 209 GW of new capacity by the end of the decade, only 22 GW of these would come from firm baseload sources.

“Even assuming no retirements, the model found increased risk of outages in 2030 by a factor of 34”, the report said, blaming in part a shift to “intermittent” sources.

“[T]he average year co-incident peak load is projected to grow from a current average peak of 774 GW to 889 GW in 2030”, the report said. “This represents a 15 percent increase or 2.3 percent growth rate per year.

“Excluding the impact of data centers, this would amount to a 51GW increase from 774 GW to 826 GW which represents a 1.1 percent annual growth rate”.

Traditional over Renewable Power

The analysis advocated for oil, gas, coal and nuclear power. “The current administration has made great strides – such as deregulation, permitting reform and other measures – to enable addition of more energy infrastructure crucial to the utilization of these resources”, the report said.

“However, even with these foundational strengths, the accelerated retirement of existing generation capacity and the insufficient pace of firm, dispatchable generation additions (partly due to a recent focus on intermittent rather than dispatchable sources of energy) undermine this energy outlook.

“Absent decisive intervention, the nation’s power grid will be unable to meet projected demand for manufacturing, re-industrialization and data centers driving artificial intelligence innovation.

“A failure to power the data centers needed to win the AI arms race or to build the grid infrastructure that ensures our energy independence could result in adversary nations shaping digital norms and controlling digital infrastructure, thereby jeopardizing U.S. economic and national security”.

In a statement for the report, DOE blamed the generation capacity backlog on “the radical green agenda of past administrations”.

In response, the American Clean Power Association, the American Council on Renewable Energy and Advanced Energy United issued a joint statement saying DOE’s report “missed the opportunity to present all the viable types of energy needed to address reliability and keep energy affordable”.

“Americans deserve to have confidence that the government is taking advantage of ready-to-deploy and affordable resources to support communities across the country”, the groups said. “Clean energy technologies are the fastest growing sources of American-made energy that are ready to keep prices down and meet demand”.

Data from the government’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) shows that as of the end of 2024, the capacity represented by generation projects actively seeking interconnection to the grid mostly comprised solar, storage and wind.

Projects with active interconnection requests as of year-end 2024 represented 2,570 GW of generation capacity, according to the LBL’s “Queued Up” statistics, last updated August 2025.

Meanwhile installed capacity as of year-end 2024 totaled 1,322 GW, mostly gas, according to the LBL data.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com