Author:
Julia Souder, CEO, LDES Council
As the global push to “electrify everything” accelerates, massive new loads are exposing the limits of today’s power systems. Julia Souder, CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, argues that data centres offer a clear warning: without long duration flexibility, electrification risks adding strain faster than grids can adapt. To make the next-generation economy clean, reliable and resilient, renewable power must be available not only when it is generated, but when demand arrives.
The global acceleration for electrification is reaching an important phase. At the recent UN climate talks in Bonn, the COP31 leaders called for amping up electrification by 2035, with Australia’s Chris Bowen calling to ‘electrify everything that can be electrified’. Paired with an influx of renewables investments, the direction of future power systems seems clear.
Yet within this ambition lies an uncomfortable truth: there is an inherent danger in uncontrolled electrification, and adding massive new loads without built-in flexibility creates a fragile system. Though electrification remains a secure path to decarbonise transport, buildings, heavy industry, and digital infrastructure, electrification is not automatically resilient.
As our core energy dependence shifts heavily to the power grid, the operational challenge has moved from high-level policy to local reality. It is no longer, “Does electrification work?” but rather, “How do we make it work in our current reality without creating a new set of problems?” Rising demand, aging grids, network congestion, competing local priorities, supply chain disruptions, and the complex politics of power are recurring problems, each threatening to tip the scale back toward fossil fuel generation.
Where the electrified economy and data centres meet the grid
This tension is actively playing out in the United States, where data centres have become the ultimate pressure test for the modern grid. The State of Virginia alone is home to over 600 data centres, with more concentrated across the PJM market (spanning 13 states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland), Texas, and the Southeast. Responsible for 23 GW of capacity online, and another 48 GW under construction or committed, data centre operators are turning to abundant renewables to power these massive new loads, looking to secure affordable, zero-carbon generation to power the next generation of digital innovation.
Increasingly, data centres are also turning to long duration energy storage (LDES). Powering these data centres requires unrelenting, around the clock power; a grid reliant on wind and solar alone cannot keep up when the sun sets or the wind drops. LDES in turn absorbs curtailed renewables that would otherwise be wasted: providing clean energy after hours, delivering flexibility from 8 to 24 to 100+ hours. What more, LDES replaces fossil fuel backup like diesel generators, decreases emissions, and provides the certainty that generation will be online exactly when required, securing customer and community needs.
Recent investments by companies including Google and Meta show major industrial operators are beginning to treat LDES as critical infrastructure. And they are not alone in making that bet. With LDES capacity is expected to reach 10.1 GW in the coming years, (excluding historically established pumped hydro, which is expected to reach 137 GW), LDES use cases are spanning industries and continents. With over 55 LDES technology solutions available (tracked by the LDES Council), many using abundant materials such as sand, water, air, salt, rock, zinc, vanadium, and iron, these diverse technologies help avoid replacing fuel dependence with a new supply-chain bottleneck.
Policy Signaling and Market Evolution for LDES
The tech giants are not the only ones taking note. State and national regulators increasingly recognise that LDES is the foundational infrastructure required to safely anchor these massive digital loads to a clean grid. Because infrastructure inevitably follows policy signals, legislative frameworks are shifting to make these technologies bankable:
- United States: Virginia’s SB448 directs utilities to procure at least 4.5 GW of intraday and multi-day storage by 2045 to manage its growing load. California has set a 1 GW LDES target by 2030, while New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts are advancing similar mechanisms. Meanwhile, inside PJM, active debates around capacity market reform centre on translating duration requirements into duration differentiated payments.
- Global Markets: Beyond the U.S., the UK’s cap-and-floor model, Australia’s Long-Term Energy Service Agreements (LTESA), Canada’s “Powering Canada Strong,” and Italy’s MACSE mechanism are examples of restructuring markets to properly value flexibility.
The policy landscape is sending a clear message to technology operators and utilities alike: the technologies are ready, the demand is here, and markets are trying to catch up.
Balancing Local Execution with Global Opportunity
The lesson is simple: new demand will only be accepted if it comes with a stronger power system providing benefits to all customers. If data centres and other large loads weaken reliability, raise consumer costs, or add pressure to local communities, resistance will grow and projects will slow.
Pairing demand with renewable generation, long duration energy storage, smarter planning, and fair cost allocation changes the story. Electrification becomes not just a source of pressure, but a driver of resilience and reliability, industrial growth, and energy security. In doing so, it helps create the conditions for a renewable-based economy capable of supporting both growing energy demand and sustained economic development.
This is why technology and planning must also move together in parallel. Siting, water management, local tax structures, and equitable community benefits remain distinct priorities. Addressing these issues through collaborative regulation and transparent public accountability is what can transform rapid electrification into a reliable driver of regional economic growth.
When we solve these local planning puzzles, the macro reward is immense. Globally, Long Duration Energy Storage presents a $4 trillion investment opportunity, with the potential to save up to $540 billion annually. These savings should not be missed.
By strengthening energy security, lowering overall system costs, and making renewable energy reliable enough to power the next generation of digital infrastructure, LDES does more than just protect the grid: it secures our electrified future. We can electrify everything that can be electrified. The question is whether we will store everything that must be stored.
Julia Souder, CEO, Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council
Julia Souder is a proven energy leader with more than 25 years shaping policy, markets and innovation across the clean energy sector. As CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, she leads global efforts to accelerate technologies critical to a reliable and net zero future. Julia is known for uniting diverse voices, turning vision into results, and advancing equitable, resilient energy solutions worldwide. Julia serves on multiple global boards and advisory committees as she drives equitable, innovative approaches to building resilient and secure energy systems.
Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council
The LDES Council unites global industry leaders, customers and policymakers to accelerate the innovation, commercialisation, and deployment of long duration energy storage technologies. By advancing real projects already in motion and sharing data-driven insights, we help scale LDES solutions today – educating utilities and industrial customers on how long duration energy storage supports their goals, informing policymakers to enable adoption and advocating for flexible and secure energy systems that meet the growing demands of electrification, serving communities adn industries worldwide.
