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by Laura Fletcher on Dec 12, 2025
Navigating the uncertainties of the ongoing and rapidly transforming power grid is imperative for longer-term trading strategies. Infrastructure Insights monitors upcoming grid changes, including new construction, upgrades, retirements and conversions of generation projects (renewable and nonrenewable), transmission lines, substations, and large power-consuming infrastructure like data centers and manufacturing facilities.
The utility of this data for traders, whether financial transmission rights (FTR) or long-term, lies in its ability to inform models and provide an edge in the market for both macro and nodal-level analyses.
Recent data enhancements include projected online years, probability scores, and point of interconnection for load centers.
Macro-level industry trends include significant load growth, particularly in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) and the Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), driven by data centers and manufacturing facilities.
The US Department of Energy predicts a 25% rise in electricity demand by 2030, with data center demand potentially doubling or tripling by 2028.
Source: Yes Energy
Other planned load centers, such as manufacturing plants, oil and gas infrastructure, and EV charging networks, also contribute to this growth. Additionally, there's an increase in proposed high-voltage transmission projects and a rise in proposed baseload generation capacity, such as natural gas and nuclear, fueled by shifting policy and the need for dispatchable power.
The Atlas Power crypto mine in Williston, North Dakota, demonstrated how a new load center could drastically increase congestion prices in an area, highlighting the importance of tracking such projects. Whether it’s at the individual project level or more high-level or policy-related, these constant changes will have implications for longer-horizon trading.
Infrastructure Insights is tracking transmission projects as well, such as the Grain Belt Express line under advanced development across Kansas and Missouri. The controversial 500-mile, 600-kV HVDC line faces political and funding challenges, so our analysts give it a 25% chance of successful completion at this point.
This is an excerpt from a special edition of RTO Insider for power traders. Want to learn more?
About the author: Laura Fletcher is on the Yes Energy product team as an associate product manager. Prior to joining the team, Laura studied environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. She started working with energy data as a college intern and she has worked on various consulting projects, annual market forecasts, client relations, and database management.
