According to Utility Dive, the U.S. power grid is in a crisis, with 70% of transmission lines over 25 years old and demand forecasts exploding. In response, a major regulatory push is underway to deploy advanced conductors, which can boost capacity on existing lines. Federal action includes the December 2025 High-Capacity Grid Act and FERC’s Order 1920, which requires grid planners to consider technologies like these. The DOE has also allocated over $600 million from its GRIP program for grid resilience, funding that includes advanced conductors. At the state level, momentum has snowballed, with over 20 states now having passed or advancing legislation, and at least 10 enacting new laws in 2025 alone. The economic case is huge, with reconductoring potentially saving consumers $85 billion in the next decade.
The perfect storm meets a shiny tool
Look, the problem here is painfully clear. We’re trying to run a 21st-century digital economy on a mid-20th-century grid. Demand is growing five times faster than forecasted just two years ago, largely thanks to data centers and new manufacturing, while capacity is crawling along at less than 1% annual growth. That mismatch isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s $11.5 billion in congestion costs last year, paid by you and me on our bills. So when a technology comes along that promises to double or triple capacity on existing lines without the decade-long fight to build new ones, regulators are gonna grab it. It seems like a no-brainer.
Why this time could be different
Here’s the thing: grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) aren’t a new idea. They’ve been talked about for years, often stuck in “pilot project” purgatory. But what’s different now is the sheer scale of the pressure. Extreme weather events are costing the economy up to $169 billion a year. The political will for new transmission lines is basically zero in many places. So advanced conductors shift from a “nice-to-have” efficiency play to a “holy-crap-we-need-this-now” reliability necessity. The fact that they can be installed with familiar tools and techniques, as the article notes, is a massive practical win. It means utilities can actually deploy them without retraining entire crews.
The hidden hurdles: Regulatory will isn’t enough
But let’s not pop the champagne just yet. A law on the books doesn’t mean copper in the air. The utility business model is famously slow and risk-averse. Even with a higher rate of return, as Montana’s law offers, there’s a massive inertia to overcome. Procurement cycles are long, and supply chains for these new materials are still scaling up. And then there’s the planning problem: FERC Order 1920 tells regional planners to *consider* GETs, but it doesn’t force them to *choose* them. If the old way of doing business—building massive new lines—is still easier from a bureaucratic standpoint, that’s what’ll happen. I think the real test will be in those first major reconductoring projects. Can they really be done in “a fraction of the time” as claimed, or will they get bogged down in the same permitting and siting nightmares?
A step forward, not a silver bullet
So, is this the magic fix? Probably not by itself. Advanced conductors are a fantastic tool for optimizing the existing network, and the $85 billion in potential savings is compelling. But they don’t solve the fundamental need for *more* transmission to move renewable energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. They’re a patch—a really smart, high-tech patch—on a system that also needs new arteries. The regulatory push is crucial and overdue, but it’s just one piece of a much bigger modernization puzzle. Basically, we’re finally starting to use the right tools for the job, but we still have a whole house to rebuild.
