One session at San Francisco Climate Week stopped me in my tracks — and it wasn’t about a new technology.
It was a history lesson.
At a gathering hosted by Ben Eidelson and Anay Shah of Stepchange Ventures and Nat Bullard of Halcyon, the three walked a room full of founders, investors, and operators through 140 years of grid history. Their thesis: if you want to understand where the grid is going, you must understand how it got here.
I loved this – because sometimes you need to take a step back to see the forest through the trees. Everyone is talking about the grid these days – how it’s broken, underutilized or maxed out (depending on your perspective), how we’ll satiate AI power needs and keep the lights on for everyone else, affordably. But here’s the thing: We’ve built this industry four times already. And each time, it looked impossible until it didn’t.
The following reflects my notes and observations from the session — with some editorializing to fill in the gaps and add context.
Era 1: Invention (1880s–1920s). It started with Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan — 400 light bulbs, DC power, and Thomas Edison convinced he’d changed the world. He had. But it took Samuel Insull, Edison’s own secretary, to figure out how to make it a business. Insull moved to Chicago and cracked the code on diversified load: he figured that if he signed up customers with different peak-demand patterns, like meat packers, trolley lines, manufacturers, and homeowners, and ran their plants around the clock, he could drive down costs for everyone. He invented the regulated monopoly model, trading exclusive territorial rights for rate oversight. The franchise territory structure that defines your electric bill today? That’s Insull’s architecture. Most people have never heard of him.
Era 2: Electrification (1930s–1940s). FDR made electricity a right, not a luxury. The New Deal brought power to rural America through the largest infrastructure buildout in U.S. history — the Rural Electrification Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Hoover Dam. To get it done fast, the federal government franchised the buildout to local utilities and cooperatives, giving each an exclusive service territory in exchange for a guaranteed customer base. It worked. Rural electrification happened remarkably quickly. But those territory boundaries were drawn at the state level and hardened into law — leaving the U.S. with roughly 3,000 separate utilities governed by 50 different regulatory frameworks, with limited ability to coordinate across borders (this was fantastic for our grandparents, but you know where this is going…) Demand continued to rise, and when World War II hit, the grid became a weapon — aluminum and magnesium smelters consumed 7% of national electricity. The Manhattan Project, based in Oak Ridge, TN, used as much power as New York City at the time.
Era 3: The Golden Age and its hangover (1950s–1970s). With the war over and plenty of capacity to spare, utilities pushed electricity into every American home. It was the golden age of domestic growth: new kitchen appliances, air conditioning, and suburban sprawl all running on cheap, abundant power (the image reminds me of Disney’s Carousel of Progress!) But then came the 1970s oil crisis and Jimmy Carter in a cardigan, asking Americans to turn down their thermostats. Efficiency became patriotic. Under Carter, Congress also passed the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), forcing utilities to buy power from independent generators. Independent power producers flooded in, creating competition for the first time.
Era 4: Deregulation and the great unbundling (1980s–2000s). Where PURPA cracked open the door to competition in generation, the 1992 Energy Policy Act blew it off the hinges, formally divorcing generation from transmission and creating the competitive wholesale power markets we have today. The integrated utility model Insull built was dismantled piece by piece. Then the shale gas revolution finished the job. Horizontal drilling and fracking unlocked vast reserves of cheap natural gas in the mid-2000s, and utilities switched away from coal, reducing its share of the grid from roughly 50% to 15%. (Side note: that drilling technology will bring new energy opportunities in the form of Enhanced Geothermal in the next era!) But here’s the irony: this massive fuel transition happened just as energy efficiency improvements (better appliances, LED lighting, more efficient industrial processes) were flattening electricity demand altogether. The grid had undergone its biggest structural shift in decades while simultaneously having less and less to do. An underutilized system, with no urgency to expand transmission, and no pressure to modernize. We had a grid optimized for a world that no longer existed and completely unprepared for what was coming.
Each era left behind unintended consequences. The territorial, state-sized jurisdictions created during rural electrification? That’s the fragmented grid we’re stuck with today. Decisions made a century ago are the reason interconnection queues stretch for years, and transmission buildout has stalled. We’ve added essentially zero new transmission capacity in recent decades, while China has built a high-voltage superhighway across an entire continent.
BUT we’ve done hard things before. The Manhattan Project consumed as much electricity as New York City. The war effort ran industrial smelters on 7% of the national grid. When the mission demanded it, the infrastructure followed. Which brings us to now. Flat for 20 years, demand is surging again. AI data centers could more than double grid load by 2035 — with estimates ranging from 106 GW to 300 GW depending on how fast AI scales. The grid is aging. Affordability is becoming a crisis. And the interconnection queue is years long.
The question now is, could this be another FDR moment? A convergence of urgency, political will (for energy dominance and affordability, at least), and industrial capacity that unlocks a generational buildout? How this period is framed and understood is still being written, and communicators will play a distinct role in that. How will you help shape the story of what comes next?
Let’s write the next story.
Were you at San Francisco Climate Week? What sessions were most impactful to you?
Melissa Mahoney is an executive vice president at V2 Communications, where she leads the firm’s climate and energy practice. With more than 20 years of experience building and protecting tech brands, Melissa counsels organizations on integrated marketing and communications strategies that strengthen reputation, navigate complex challenges and support broader business objectives. In addition to overseeing client engagements, Melissa leads the firm’s crisis communications function.
About V2 Communications
V2 Communications is a top PR firm for tech companies and a leading integrated communications partner focused on B2B, AI, climate and energy, and healthcare technology brands. The firm delivers integrated communications programs across earned, owned and paid media, helping companies build market leadership, increase visibility and drive measurable business results.