GridCARE says existing U.S. grid could support up to 120 GW of new power demand. GridCARE said Oct. 9 it has qualified 5 gigawatts (GW) of additional capacity on the existing U.S. electric grid over the past 12 months, working with six utilities, as demand from data centers and other large electricity users grows. The company also introduced its Power Acceleration Index, which estimates that the existing grid could support an additional 100 GW to 120 GW of electricity demand and generate $270 billion to $350 billion in net customer benefits, including lower electricity bills, although any bill credits or rate reductions would depend on regulatory and tariff approvals. The company estimates that returning the benefits to customers through bill credits or lower rates could reduce utility bills by 7 percent to 9 percent, or $130 to $170 annually for households. The figures are projections based on the index's assumptions, not guaranteed savings, GridCARE added. "The debate over AI infrastructure has focused on how much new power America needs to build. We asked a different question: how much power is already within the grid we have built?" said Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of GridCARE. "Power Acceleration unlocks it through software and qualified flexibility, without requiring major grid upgrades," Narayan said. "We have been actively qualifying power market by market, and now the Power Acceleration Index gives the whole industry a way to estimate the broader opportunity for the customers who paid for the grid should share in the value." GridCARE said its approach aims to address long waits for electricity connections by identifying unused capacity on existing power lines and substations. Large customers, including data centers and factories, could connect sooner if they agree to reduce electricity use when the grid is under strain. Utilities must determine how much additional demand the grid can safely accommodate, when customers may need to reduce consumption, and how quickly and for how long they must respond. GridCARE says its technology helps utilities establish those requirements while maintaining reliability. The company's projects include work with Portland General Electric in Hillsboro, Ore., where it qualified more than 400 megawatts (MW) of data center capacity. The utility made 80 MW available for data centers in 2026, with the remaining capacity scheduled to be energized by 2029 at the latest, according to GridCARE. In the Pacific Northwest, GridCARE said it has qualified more than 2 GW of additional capacity with multiple utilities. In New York, the company worked with National Grid to identify up to 650 MW of potential capacity for large customers willing to accept flexible connection terms. GridCARE is also working with South Carolina utility Santee Cooper to identify ways to serve additional large loads using existing infrastructure. "Traditional assessments showed that adding load at certain locations on our system would require lengthy, capital-intensive infrastructure upgrades," said Chris Wagner, senior director of technical services at Santee Cooper. "Partnering with GridCARE is enabling us to uncover flexible solutions to allow near-term capacity growth while maintaining grid reliability and advancing South Carolina's economic development." In California, Southern California Edison used GridCARE's technology to study a constrained circuit in the Inland Empire. The initial analysis identified up to 20 MW of additional flexible capacity that could support future connections while maintaining reliability, the companies said. GridCARE unveiled its Power Acceleration Index at a summit in San Francisco on Oct. 8. The index uses standardized assumptions to estimate how much additional demand existing grid infrastructure could accommodate and the potential financial benefit to customers. The estimates are based on the premise that power lines and other grid equipment are built to handle peak demand and may have available capacity at other times. However, the amount of additional demand that can be served depends on local grid conditions, weather, equipment outages, and the flexibility requirements of individual customers. The approach could allow utilities to connect large electricity users sooner without immediately building all the infrastructure that might otherwise be required. Whether those connections reduce costs for existing customers will depend on how utilities implement the arrangements and whether regulators approve mechanisms to return savings to ratepayers, said GridCARE.

GridCARE is working with Southern California Edison to deploy physics-based AI technology that identifies additional capacity on constrained grid infrastructure. The collaboration aims to accelerate new customer connections without requiring costly infrastructure expansion. In an initial study on a constrained Inland Empire circuit, GridCARE's Power Acceleration technology identified 20 MW of additional flexible capacity that could safely support future customer energisation whilst maintaining reliability requirements. SCE is exploring Power Acceleration at several other locations to energise EV charging, manufacturing and commercial customers. Duke University research estimates existing US power systems could accommodate nearly 100 GW of new load at just 0.5% annual curtailment. GridCARE, founded at Stanford's Doerr School, has accelerated more than 1 GW of grid capacity. The company claims its platform has enabled economic value exceeding $10 billion for data centre developers.