Electrification will impact electricity demand in the future and put pressure on the nation’s current electrical grid. Modernizing the grid will be critical to the energy transition and achieving sustainability goals.
Overview
The U.S. electric grid operates as three smaller interconnections – East, West, and Texas – with limited connections between them. This structure makes it difficult to move renewable energy from generation-rich regions to where it’s most needed.
Federal action is helping accelerate change. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, represented the largest clean energy investment in U.S. history, directing hundreds of billions toward renewable generation, energy storage, and grid resilience against extreme weather and security risks.
At the same time, data centers are emerging as major new energy consumers. The International Energy Agency projects global data-center power demand will more than double by 2030, with the U.S. driving about half that growth. As highlighted in Crain’s Cleveland Business, firms across Ohio and beyond are expanding data-center infrastructure and partnering with Nexus Engineering Group to manage capacity, utility coordination, and transmission upgrades.
The convergence of renewable growth, rising digital demand, and new federal investment is propelling a wave of grid modernization. The challenge ahead is not just generating more power—it’s ensuring it flows reliably, efficiently, and sustainably to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving energy landscape.
Challenge
Nexus began working with one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities with thousands of miles of transmission lines and a regulated generating fleet. The firm was challenged with developing a multi-state program to harden, enhance, modernize, and expand the client’s transmission and distribution assets.
Our Team worked to address new and existing substation capacity, in addition to the development of green field substation projects. The client’s substations primarily serve industrial, commercial, and residential customers so reliability is crucial.
Solution
When working on a program of this scale, serving thousands of locations across the Midwest and Mid Atlantic, there is a level of precision required to drive high quality work forward. Our Team leverages the Nexus Project Delivery System to accurately scope projects, track timelines and budgets, estimate project and construction costs, manage change, and capture performance KPIs. Performance data is fed back into the system to make improvements in the program execution.
Within a year of the multi-state program’s launch, Nexus is being recognized as a top-rated engineering partner. The firm is known for its response time, quality, and in-depth knowledge of the client and its business operations. This high level of execution allowed Nexus to expand its program support to include more substations and other assets, further helping the client achieve its goals.
