Building a grid
for the age of power
A new era of electrification is rapidly taking shape. Its success depends on whether we invest in the modern power grids it runs on.
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Daring to build
Every age is remembered by what it built, with new infrastructure transforming the way the world works.
Infrastructure like canals, railways, telephone lines, highways and internet cables have in turn ushered in new eras of change.
Each made possible ways of living and kinds of growth that no one could have imagined before.
A new era of electrification is arriving fast.
Its success depends on whether we invest in the modern grid infrastructure it runs on. That choice is being made now.
The world moved on, the grid did not
How we work, travel and communicate has changed beyond recognition in the last fifty years.
But the grid has stayed fundamentally the same.
Grids are out of step with a world that moves faster and is hungrier for power than any before.
Across the world, countries are transforming themselves into electrostates, where the entire economy runs on electricity.
In these countries, cars, trains, kitchens, heating and factories are switching from fossil fuels to clean electricity.
Domestic wind and solar are replacing fossil fuel imports.
Data centres are expanding, drawing power around the clock.
The nations that build a grid for this age of power will be where AI, industry and investment go.
A new type of grid, fit for the age of power
The old grid sent power one way, from a few large power stations to everyone else.
In a modern grid, generation is increasingly spread across the country.
Power flows now move in two directions. Homes and businesses both draw electricity from the grid and generate electricity to send back in.
The system no longer depends on a few big plants and becomes more resilient.
This is enabled by smart devices and digitalisation, which allow us to see and control what is happening on the grid.
When power is plentiful and cheap, electric vehicles charge and heating or cooling turns on.
Batteries store surplus electricity and release it when generation falls.
Bills fall, the system runs better and we can do more, faster with the existing grid.
The wires are smarter too. Lines fitted with sensors carry more power when the weather allows.
Advanced cables made from new, lighter materials carry much more on the same towers.
This is the modern grid: digital, flexible and smarter about how it grows. It gets more out of the lines we already have.
New lines are planned and built using the technology of today, rather than the designs of decades ago.
The connection queues holding back investment start to clear and projects get online quicker, without waiting for a new line to be built.
This is not the old grid made bigger. It is a modern grid, fit for the age of power.
Modernising the grid
The work can begin today by optimising the grid that already exists. Then strengthening it. Then expanding it.
Optimise
Get more out of the grid that already exists.
Reinforce
Then strengthen it where it holds the system back.
Expand
Then build new lines and substations where they are needed.
Where to start
Time to impact vs. cost
Cost and time ratings in this table are comparative and indicative. No rating refers to a specific cost or date. Costs and timelines differ in every country, but the relative order is a useful guide to show which interventions can move fastest, which likely take the longest and which tend to cost more or less.