There’s a better way to use the electric grid—and cut power bills

By unlocking existing power on the electric grid as demand grows, a new report says that American consumers could save as much as $170 billion on electric bills over the next decade.

[Source Photo: KPixMining/Adobe Stock]

When electricity demand is set to surge—say, from a new power-hungry data center—the default response from a utility is often to build a new (and expensive) power plant and other infrastructure.

A new report released by a cross-industry coalition called Utilize argues that we can make better use of existing power on the grid instead. Roughly half of the total capacity goes unused most of the time because the grid was built to meet spikes in demand. But as technology has shifted, it’s become........

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