How Congress Can Address Load Growth and Fix the Broken Energy Regulatory System to Decarbonize the Grid

The answers to energy affordability in NC lie in congressional Reform to Electricity Markets

In part 1 of this blog series, I addressed how data centers and AI are a threat to NC and the electricity grid. Now, how do I plan to address load growth, energy affordability, and other issues with the electricity system in Congress?

America must look deeper because the structure of electricity markets in the U.S. is broken and does not facilitate cheaper and more reliable renewables; it needs a page one rewrite at the federal level.

For data centers, many in the U.S. have suggested actions like improvements to load forecasting (answering the question of how much load growth to anticipate for a utility), new electricity tariff designs to protect ratepayers, and flexible interconnection, all of which can still play a role.

However, the framework for electricity cost recovery was designed for a one-way flow of generation in the 19th and early 20th centuries, centered on cost-of-service regulation, where state regulators allow utilities to recover a revenue requirement. In short, it’s the reasonable amount of money and capital utilities need to provide power to customers.

I believe we are all “one system,” as FERC Commissioner Judy Chang recently said, but utilities, regulators, and others in the energy industry do not treat it as one system. The goal is to keep the lights on, not raise rates because of data centers, and reform electricity markets to help decarbonize and keep rates affordable for those who are most at risk of a high energy burden.

To accomplish this, we need to adopt two federal changes inspired by our friends across the pond. The first is to establish a U.S. Future System Operator, the UK equivalent of the National Energy System Operator (NESO), and a new National Regulatory Body, comparable to Great Britain’s Ofgem.

NESO was created as a result of the UK’s 2023 Energy Act and is now responsible for planning and delivering the energy and electricity mix of today and the future of the country. NESO was a reform of the previous Electricity System Operator (ESO), and received more responsibility to help Great Britain decarbonize.

NESO did not “nationalize the grid”, as private companies still play a massive role in Great Britain’s electric grid.

Instead, it is the system operator that oversees electricity markets on a national scale and has had its responsibilities enhanced to meet future grid needs. The U.S. employs a series of fragmented non-profit system operators that perform similar functions in many U.S. states, for comparison, but without the same ability to incentivize innovation and address interconnection issues due to the outdated cost recovery framework in each state.

Ofgem in Great Britain is a national regulator that works closely with NESO on duties that can be best described as a mix of FERC and state regulator responsibilities, including protecting consumers from harm, keeping bills affordable, ensuring access to secure and reliable energy, promoting market innovation, and taking steps towards net zero.

One key for Ofgem is its different ratemaking and price cap framework, known as RIIO (Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs), which does a better job of incentivizing innovation, improving service and reliability, meeting social obligations, and other goals for the country’s electricity mix.

While prices for consumers can still technically increase in the UK, RIIO and Ofgem’s price caps are key to helping Great Britain avoid price gouging while still ensuring utilities make a profit and a fair return on investment. FERC and state regulators are the closest equivalent in the U.S., but they do not have anywhere near the capability of Ofgem.

The U.S. needs to take note, as this combination of NESO and Ofgem produces impeccable results in the race to decarbonize the electric grid.

NESO is also on track to reach a brief period of 100% carbon-free electricity in 2025 and has already achieved a brief period of 95%, while aiming to fully decarbonize its electricity system by 2035. Great Britain has Reduced its maximum carbon intensity between 2014 and 2024 by 46%. In April of 2025, it achieved a new record of 13.25 GW of solar (enough to charge over a million electric vehicles).

NESO also has an innovative plan specifically aimed at addressing load growth from large loads, such as data centers, as they face the same challenges as the U.S. grid, known as ED3.

These advantages have also extended to the wider UK electricity system as well, renewables comprise roughly 40% of the country’s total energy mix, the energy intensity of the economy decreased by 55%, and electricity consumption per capita has decreased by 31%. Reducing energy intensity and consumption is key to addressing load growth in the U.S. and is often overlooked in discussions about data centers and load growth.

If I am elected to Congress, I will not only work hard to reform electricity markets in the U.S. to adopt a Future System Operator and a more powerful National Regulatory Body, but I will also have stern questions for companies like Google, Amazon, and others. It is time to hold them accountable for rate increases and push back on an Abundance Agenda that aims to deregulate energy markets and stymie environmental and climate protection.

This post is part of my Energy and Climate Week Call to Action to make this vision of energy affordability and a better electricity grid a reality! Donate with our climate pledge below

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rbclimatepledge02

Title image credit: Cheryl Cran, Nextmapping, https://nextmapping.com/predict-the-future-by-leveraging-patterns/