The Southeast’s grid is being asked to support an unprecedented surge in demand from data centers, manufacturers, and electrification, and yet the Southeast Regional Transmission Planning process (SERTP), is still built on yesterday’s assumptions. When projected demand outpaces supply forecasts, or those forecasts fade away, investment plans go from imperfect to obsolete. 

The economic costs are real and rising: transmission delays, higher interconnection charges, costlier local upgrades, and restricted access to low-cost resources pushing rates higher and ultimately deterring local investment.

Reports repeatedly show that delaying large-scale transmission projects compound consumer costs by deferring reliability gains, raising prices, and stalling economic development, job growth, and national security. When you put it in dollars, the math is stark:

• For every $1 billion delayed in well-planned transmission, consumers lose roughly $150 million in net benefits each year of the delay. Those losses stem from postponed reliability improvements, reduced access to lower-cost generation, and diminished economic efficiency.
• Each $1 billion of delayed transmission investment defers an estimated 11,000 to 25,000 direct, indirect, and induced job-years, undermining communities that depend on these high-quality, skilled jobs.

In an era of rising demand from data centers and large manufacturers, a modern grid is not a luxury - it’s a prerequisite for investment. Polls underscore the political and public appetite for reliability, affordability, and growth: voters are prioritizing electricity affordability, and there is broad support for letting markets and planners align transmission with anticipated needs.

Scenario-based planning isn’t optional; it’s essential. Moving beyond a single forecast to multiple, plausible futures helps utilities and regulators identify investments that perform well across outcomes—especially under extreme weather and rapid electrification. This reduces the risk of overbuilding or underbuilding and keeps the grid reliable, affordable, and adaptable.

Yet SERTP’s current cadence of seeing 10-year forecasts for a decade of needs fails to capture the pace and scale of today’s demand. The Southeast is poised to add up to 20 GW of new load and 80 GW of new generation by 2035; yet, no regional transmission project has been approved in over a decade. If we act now, we can reap jobs, lower costs, and resilient growth. If we wait, we risk economic losses and the specter of power outages.

This moment is political and financial as well as technical. If you’re an investor, policymaker, business leader, or concerned citizen, your voice matters. Join the call for proactive, scenario-based transmission planning that aligns with the Southeast’s growth trajectory—and helps secure a prosperous, reliable, and affordable energy future.

Additional SERTP Resources from SREA:

• SERTP: Planning for Yesterday's Grid in Tomorrow's Southeast (January 2026)
• At SERTP's Q2 Meeting, Transmission Planning in the Southeast Continues with Some Improvements (July 1, 2025)
• SREA's Comments on Enhancing SERTP's Stakeholder Engagement, Transparency and Effectiveness of the RPSG (May 30, 2025)
• SERTP Scenario Developmemt: Leading or Lagging? (May 1, 2025)
• Transparency, Tension & Transmission Planning: What Happened at the SERTP Q1 2025 Meeting (March 28, 2025)
• The Importance of Open, Transparent Cost Allocation in Transmission Planning (November 1, 2024)