Across America, energy bills are climbing, with costs increasing at more than twice the pace of other goods and services. Rising energy demand, supply chain bottlenecks, and aging grid infrastructure are among the causes of these increases. Meanwhile, the rollback of federal tax credits, as part of H.R. 1 (“One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), alongside new administrative and regulatory roadblocks, only exacerbate these ongoing cost trends by making it harder to build much-needed new energy resources. But one of the biggest drivers of this cost increase is an antiquated grid planning process.

For decades, demand for electricity was mostly flat. Utilities could maintain the system with incremental, project-by-project upgrades. But today, with new industries and technologies driving demand, that approach is no longer keeping pace.

Currently, in Pennsylvania, utilities must seek approval for new substations or transmission lines one project at a time. Each proposal is reviewed in isolation, which often results in duplicative construction, higher costs, and added strain on communities. Those costs ultimately fall on ratepayers.

Think about it like building a shed. If you know the materials you’ll need, you make only one trip to the hardware store and get everything at once. But under our current system, Pennsylvania utilities make dozens of trips, buying extra wood and nails along the way. The result? Utilities end up duplicating work – digging up the same ground, retrofitting the same equipment, and revisiting the same neighborhoods repeatedly. A more efficient approach is needed.

The solution is comprehensive grid planning: looking ahead, anticipating future electricity load, and designing a system that can meet it efficiently. This approach allows utilities to: 

• Identify cost-effective upgrades and avoid duplicative projects.

• Leverage innovative, cost-saving technologies that maximize existing infrastructure.

• Integrate solutions like virtual power plants, advanced transmission technologies, non-wire alternatives, that increase grid capacity without building expensive new grid infrastructure.

Without this kind of proactive planning, Pennsylvania will continue to miss out on cost-cutting measures, like deploying grid-modernization technologies, microgrids, storage, advanced metering, and EV charging infrastructure. Pennsylvania and the broader PJM region have enormous return-on-investment potential from advanced transmission technologies, particularly grid-enhancing technologies, which could deliver $1 billion in annual savings through 2030. Across the country utilities have also demonstrated that deploying demand response programs and better leveraging distributed resources cut costs: In one case, a utility avoided a $1.2 billion dollar substation by investing in these technologies–an approach that’s only grown more effective in the years since.

Planning ahead might seem like an obvious thing for an electric utility to do, but sadly, there’s no clear legislative or regulatory framework to facilitate it. In the Pennsylvania General Assembly, a legislative fix is already underway, with Representative Joe Webster introducing a bill (HB 705) that would require long-term electrification planning. This bill would have utilities lay out a plan, updated every five years, to evaluate the reliability and resiliency of the transmission and distribution network. This will be essential for lowering costs for ratepayers and utilities, with a smarter more efficient grid.

Smarter planning means lower costs, fewer blackouts, and a stronger foundation for the state’s growing economy. Right now, our grid is stuck in the rotary-phone era, when what we really need is the equivalent of a smart device — reliable, efficient, and built for the future. By planning ahead, we can keep costs under control, strengthen reliability, and maintain Pennsylvania’s energy leadership, and United will continue working with policymakers in Harrisburg to ensure this vision becomes a reality.