U.S. Grid Remains Reliable in the Face of Emerging Risks

The U.S. electric grid system remained relatively resilient even as it faced significant operational stress, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) 2025 State of Reliability report. Despite being hit with two major winter storms and five hurricanes, utilities across the U.S. and Canada were able to avoid load shedding, when power is disconnected to certain areas due to insufficient generation to meet demand.

That outcome marks a clear gain in grid resilience, helped along by tougher cold-weather standards, stronger protocols for power sharing between regional grids, and more coordinated restoration planning. In the case of Hurricane Helen, for instance, over 4.7 million customers lost power, yet service was restored in just over a week, just half the duration such events have typically required.

Still, the report doesn’t offer an all-clear. New risks are emerging, and quickly. One of the most concerning involves how the grid is being reshaped by shifting load profiles. In 2024, a single transmission fault triggered an abrupt disconnection of 1,500 megawatts (MW) of data center load, roughly equivalent to knocking a nuclear generation unit offline in an instant. These kinds of rapid losses strain grid operators’ ability to keep the grid stabilized, especially in areas seeing heavy growth in AI and cloud computing infrastructure. In response, NERC has launched specialized task forces to improve modeling and forecasting for such events, which are among the fastest-growing challenges in the system. This is becoming a rapidly growing risk as demand for AI data centers continues to soar in the U.S.

With AI applications, cloud computing, and other energy-intensive workload demands expanding rapidly, data center electricity use is steadily rising both in scale and volatility. These facilities don’t just consume intensive amounts of power, they also require consistent, high-quality delivery with low tolerance for disruption. This stress is compounded by the aging U.S. infrastructure, and the already evident need for large-scale infrastructure upgrades.

Battery storage is quietly taking on a much larger role in shoring up reliability. By the end of 2024, ERCOT, the Texas grid operator, had over 10 gigawatts (GW) of battery energy storage online, and in some cases, batteries were supplying the entirety of its frequency regulation needs. That shift signals a turning point: Storage is no longer a backup plan, instead becoming a core operational tool.

But important friction points remain. Inverter-based resources (IBRs), which include most utility-scale solar and battery projects, continue to pose reliability concerns. Since 2016, around 15 GW of IBR capacity has gone offline during 10 major disturbance events.. In May 2025, NERC issued an alert urging utilities and developers to strengthen both modeling practices and performance standards for these assets.

All told, the 2025 report illustrates a picture of real progress on familiar reliability threats, paired with a rapidly shifting risk landscape. The grid is holding, for now, but the pressure points are moving fast, and the margin for error continues to narrow.