A market report on: From capital to delivery: Why US utilities now compete on speed to energization & value
From capital
to delivery:
Why US utilities now
compete on speed to
energization & value
Newton | From capital to delivery
Contents
03
Introduction
1 | Investment scale has fundamentally changed
04
2 | The real cost of delay
07
3 | The bottleneck has shifted upstream
10
4 | The invisible bottleneck: orchestration capacity
11
5 | From projects to systems
13
6 | Why delivery models now matter
15
7 | What leading utilities are doing differently
17
8 | Where value will be won: build, utilize and orchestrate
18
9 | Where Newton can help
19
10 | Conclusion
20
21
Contacts
2
Newton Enhancing performance and creating enduring value | From capital to delivery
The next competitive advantage in the utility sector may not be capital. It is the ability to orchestrate the industrial complex required to convert investment into energized infrastructure, at speed.” Benoît Laclau Global Energy & Infrastructure Leader, Newton
INTRODUCTION
The industry is trying to double throughput. The race is now won through orchestration.
The industry is entering a new phase. As infrastructure programs scale, competitive advantage may increasingly depend on how effectively utilities coordinate delivery across an interconnected system.
Across the United States, utilities are entering one of the largest infrastructure investment cycles in decades. Demand growth from data centers, manufacturing expansion and electrification is accelerating the need for new generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. Yet the challenge is no longer simply approving capital. The critical question is whether organizations can convert investment into energized infrastructure fast enough to support economic growth while maintaining affordability and reliability. The industry’s biggest constraints are shifting upstream. Permitting, interconnection, transmission readiness, engineering capacity and stakeholder alignment are becoming critical determinants of delivery performance.
As projects become larger and delivery timelines compress, success increasingly depends on coordination across a broader network of stakeholders and delivery partners. Utilities now operate within an industrial complex spanning regulators, ISOs, supply chains, engineering firms, technology providers, financing institutions, EPCs and large-load customers. This report explores why utilities may increasingly compete on execution readiness, speed to energization, infrastructure utilization and the ability to orchestrate this broader system to deliver outcomes at unprecedented scale.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
1
Investment scale has fundamentally changed
Across the United States, the power sector is entering one of the largest infrastructure investment cycles in decades. After years of relatively flat electricity demand, utilities are now planning for sustained growth driven by data centers, manufacturing expansion, electrification and broader economic development.
$1.4t It is estimated that investor- owned electric companies will invest more than $1.4t in grid infrastructure by the end of the decade. The scale of the shift is becoming visible in utility capital plans. Duke Energy recently expanded its long- term investment plans as load growth accelerated across its service territories. American Electric Power raised its five-year capital plan to $78bn in response to rapidly increasing data center demand. Southern Company, Dominion Energy, NextEra Energy and many others continue scaling investment across: • generation
EPRI estimates that US data centers could account for between 9% and 17% of total US electricity demand by 2030 under certain scenarios. Load growth expectations across multiple utility territories are now materially above historical averages. In Northern Virginia alone, data center concentration has become so significant that transmission readiness, connection timing and system planning are now central strategic issues for utilities, regulators and large-load customers alike. Hyperscale infrastructure is also becoming a broader public policy issue involving: • utility economics • land use • water resources • transmission planning • regional economic development In the last two years, we’ve seen demand growth double, and it will likely continue.” Drew Maloney President and Chief Executive Officer of EEI
• transmission • distribution • storage • grid modernization
At the same time, electricity demand forecasts are changing materially.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Utilities are therefore balancing these three pressure points simultaneously: • accelerating demand growth • infrastructure delivery at an unprecedented pace • affordability and customer impact Together, these pressures are fundamentally changing how utilities think about planning, execution and infrastructure readiness.
Utilities are also now operating under levels of time compression the sector has rarely experienced before. The question is now how quickly investment can become usable infrastructure capacity. “Projects are getting larger and more complex. Customers need affordable and reliable power now, not years
from now.” John Ketchum President and Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy
At the same time, the industry conversation is beginning to evolve beyond infrastructure expansion alone. Utilities, regulators, technology companies and investors are therefore discussing how to improve utilization of the existing grid through: • flexible demand • storage • demand response • transmission optimization • distribution flexibility The challenge is no longer simply how much infrastructure can be built. It is how effectively the broader utility ecosystem can be orchestrated.
For many utility leadership teams, this is becoming less a question of infrastructure planning and more a question of industrial system performance. The issue is no longer simply whether capital can be approved. It is whether organizations can convert that capital into energized infrastructure fast enough to support growth, maintain affordability and preserve regulatory confidence. Providing the reliable power our customers expect requires us to add every available megawatt to the grid and increase speed to power as we build for economic growth.” Harry Sideris President and Chief Executive Officer of Duke Energy
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Can the Electricity Investment Supercycle be delivered at speed?
More than $1.4 trillion of funding is being invested into US electricity infrastructure over the next five years.
Figure 1. The scale of the US electricity investment and delivery challenge is accelerating simultaneously.
AI/DATA CENTRES
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH
ELECTRIFICATION
UTILITY INVESTMENT 2025-2029 $1.4t
GRID EXPANSION
EXPECTED GROWTH 4-5% of electricity demand in the United States over the next five years
SUPPLY CHAINS
WORKFORCE
6
of delay 2 Newton | From capital to delivery
The real cost
In most utility capital programs, performance is still primarily measured through traditional delivery metrics: • capital efficiency • schedule performance • delivery quality • time to energization These metrics remain important. But they are no longer sufficient on their own. Because in practice, a delayed project does not simply cost more. It delays revenue realization, rate base growth, industrial expansion, system capacity and broader economic activity. Across portfolios, these effects compound quickly. This is visible across US power markets. In PJM, tightening supply-demand conditions and slower infrastructure delivery have contributed to sharply rising capacity prices. At the same time, interconnection backlogs continue delaying projects already seeking access to the grid. The challenge is no longer theoretical. Today, large-load customers are making location decisions based on:
That framing matters Because the challenge is no longer simply allocating capital. It is allocating capital in ways that: • accelerate energization • unlock broader system capacity • maintain affordability • improve industrial competitiveness This breaks a common misconception. A day lost in construction is costly. But a day lost in: 1. development 2. permitting 3. interconnection 4. regulatory approvals …can be even more damaging when it delays an entire portfolio sequence. The question is where the next best dollar should go, how it improves the customer experience and how it lowers costs for customers.” Brian Savoy Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Duke Energy
• infrastructure readiness • transmission availability • energization timelines • permitting certainty
In several markets, utilities and economic development agencies are openly discussing whether infrastructure timing may become a gating factor for future industrial growth. At the same time, affordability pressure is increasing materially. Utilities are now balancing several competing priorities simultaneously:
• infrastructure expansion • customer affordability • regulatory expectations • reliability requirements
In reality, affordability is becoming one of the defining constraints shaping infrastructure sequencing and capital allocation decisions.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Historic ally, the industry has often viewed construction delay as the primary source of value erosion because construction delays are highly visible financially. They affect cash deployment, schedules and near-term delivery metrics. But for utilities investing against accelerating load growth, the larger loss is often upstream. A day lost in permitting, interconnection or transmission readiness can delay energization, defer economic growth, postpone revenue realization and slow broader portfolio throughput long before construction even begins. The industry is recognizing that the largest cost of delay may not occur during construction itself, but before projects ever reach construction readiness.
Poor sequencing, unclear cost allocation and delayed permitting are no longer simply delivery issues. They have now become customer cost issues.
The impact of delay can now be seen across multiple dimensions: • delayed transmission upgrades can defer generation projects • delayed interconnection processes can postpone industrial expansion • delayed permitting decisions can affect entire portfolio sequences
The impact is cumulative and increasingly system-wide.
The cost of delay in utility capital projects Why timing of value now drives returns
Most delays originate upstream (development and pre-FID)
Initial Delay
Immediate Impact • Dissatisfied customers • Revenue not realised • Cash flow delayed • Cost increases
Cascading Effect
Portfolio Impact
The Real Impact
• A delay occurs
Shared resources create dependancies.
• One delay slows multiple projects • Delays compound • Returns pushed further out
• Delayed connections means delayed economic growth • Delay in utilities’ rate recovery and cash flows
in a single project
• EPC capacity • Skilled labor • Critical equipment • Interdependent projects phases Often originates upstream (pre-FID)
In a high-growth environment, speed of delivery drives value.
Figure 2. Delays created upstream often propagate across portfolios long before construction begins.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Across the US, the industry is also recognizing that solving the challenge may not rely solely on building more infrastructure. It may also depend on improving utilization of the infrastructure already in place. Utilities are now evaluating how: • flexible demand • distributed storage • demand response • dynamic line ratings • transmission optimization …can accelerate time to capacity while reducing customer cost.
The implication is important. Improving infrastructure utilization may become as strategically valuable as expanding infrastructure itself. The financial impact of delay is becoming more and more visible in: • affordability • energization timing • economic competitiveness • regional growth outcomes The cost of delay is no longer just a project issue. It is becoming a system-level economic issue.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
The bottleneck has shifted upstream 3
The most significant constraints facing utilities today sit before construction even begins. Across the US power sector, the critical bottlenecks are now concentrated in: • development and permitting • interconnection • transmission readiness • engineering and system studies • regulatory throughput • stakeholder and community alignment These constraints are becoming critical because they determine whether infrastructure can move from approved capital into energized capacity at the pace demand now requires. The scale of the challenge is already visible across the system. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s latest ‘Queued Up’ analysis reports that more than 2,060 GW of generation and storage capacity was actively seeking connection to the US grid at the end of 2025, with timelines in some regions extending multiple years. PJM alone has faced such significant backlog pressure that it implemented major reforms to its interconnection process while demand growth continues to outpace the speed at which projects can move through approvals and system integration. At the same time, utilities are competing simultaneously for scarce execution capacity across the broader infrastructure system. This includes competition for:
These constraints are earlier in the lifecycle, less visible operationally and often harder to manage than downstream construction activity. And critically, this is where much of the value erosion now occurs. A delay in development, permitting or interconnection can:
1. disrupt transmission sequencing 2. delay procurement commitments 3. tie up engineering resources 4. postpone energization 5. increase affordability pressure 6. cascade across broader portfolios
These impacts rarely remain isolated to individual projects. By the time delays appear in construction reporting, the underlying issue has often existed for months or years upstream. This is changing how utilities think about execution readiness itself. In practice, execution readiness depends not only on technical and financial capability, but also on: • regulatory predictability • stakeholder alignment • public acceptance • portfolio sequencing discipline • speed of decision-making across the delivery ecosystem The ability to move efficiently through pre-construction phases has become a strategic differentiator across the industry.
• engineering capacity • regulatory throughput • transmission access • supply chain capacity • skilled labor • stakeholder and community acceptance
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Newton | From capital to delivery
The invisible bottleneck: orchestration capacity 4
One of the least visible constraints in the current investment cycle is orchestration capacity before construction even begins. Utilities understand physical construction constraints well: • labor availability • transformer lead times • EPC capacity • construction sequencing These constraints remain important, but the upstream challenge is often organizational. The ability to: • move projects through governance quickly • align engineering, regulatory and transmission decisions • prioritize scarce resources across portfolios • accelerate permitting and stakeholder alignment • make investment decisions at the pace demand now requires …is becoming constrained across the industry.
And unlike physical bottlenecks, these constraints are difficult to measure directly. The issue is not simply whether organizations have enough people. It is whether the overall delivery system can process complexity fast enough. In reality, execution performance depends less on optimizing individual functions and more on how effectively the broader industrial system works together. Projects move through interconnected delivery ecosystems involving: • regulators • utilities • ISOs and RTOs • engineering teams • supply chain partners • local communities • environmental processes
• financing institutions • large-load customers • technology providers
Utility Delivery Model
AFFORDABILITY
RELIABILITY
Policy & regulatory complexity
Capital approval cycles
Regulators
Permitting Agencies
DOE / Financing Institutions
Large-Load Customers
Orchestrating the industrial complex: — Aligning stakeholders — Removing friction — Delivering outcomes
Success depends on orchestration: — Aligned ecosystem — Fewer friction points — Better outcomes
Data & process silos
ISOs / RTOS
Utility / Grid Program Integrated planning & delivery orchestration
Interconnection constraints
Communities
Supply Chain
Technology Providers
Engineering
Outcome Based Partners
EPCs
Community concerns
Supply chain bottlenecks
Interdependency
Friction points
SPEED TO ENERGIZATION
Workforce constraints
Desired outcomes
Figure 3. Utility performance increasingly depends on orchestration across the broader industrial complex.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
No single organization controls all these dependencies, yet all influence delivery speed and energization timing. These interconnected ecosystems are beginning to operate as part of a broader industrial complex: an interdependent infrastructure system spanning utilities, regulators, supply chains, financing institutions, technology providers, large-load customers and public stakeholders. The challenge is no longer simply optimizing individual parts of the system. It is orchestrating the industrial complex as a whole. Delays in one part of the system propagate across all others. This changes the nature of execution risk itself. The challenge is orchestrating decisions, approvals, financing, supply chains and delivery activity across the integrated industrial system at a pace the sector has not previously required. The challenge is now systemic rather than functional. Utilities are recognizing that scale alone is not the advantage. The advantage is the ability to coordinate capital, supply chains, engineering, financing and infrastructure delivery across increasingly interconnected systems.
This is driving greater emphasis on systems thinking across the sector. Utilities are recognizing that infrastructure performance can no longer be evaluated solely at the individual project level because demand growth, grid capability, permitting, financing, supply chains and delivery timing are now deeply interconnected across the broader system. Utilities are therefore rethinking how accountability, incentives and orchestration are structured across development, engineering, procurement, construction and energization. In many cases, utility operating models were designed for a slower, more sequential infrastructure environment than the one now emerging. The future of the grid may depend not simply on building more infrastructure, but on orchestrating the existing system more intelligently and dynamically.
We need to build at a pace of generation and transmission that we haven’t seen in the past decade.” Bob Frenzel Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xcel Energy
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Newton | From capital to delivery
to systems 5
From projects
The utility industry has historically optimized at the project level. But infrastructure delivery is now system dependent. Generation depends on transmission. Transmission depends on permitting and interconnection. Load growth depends on overall system readiness. Transmission is rapidly becoming more than utility infrastructure. It is becoming national competitiveness infrastructure tied directly to:
These outcomes are often interconnected. At the same time, the industry is recognizing that the challenge is not only building infrastructure faster. It is also extracting greater throughput and flexibility from the system already in place. Utilities are evaluating improved utilization of transmission systems, distribution infrastructure, storage assets, flexible demand and distributed resources to accelerate time to capacity while reducing customer cost. This is changing the definition of infrastructure productivity across the sector. This is especially visible in organized markets such as PJM and ERCOT, where: • generation development • transmission planning • interconnection processes …are deeply interconnected. Large volumes of technically viable generation remain delayed because surrounding transmission systems and approvals cannot move at the same pace. Optimizing individual projects is no longer sufficient. Performance increasingly depends on portfolio throughput across the broader system. The specific constraints vary materially by market structure. The proposed consolidation across the sector reflects this shift. Specifically, the planned merger between NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy is being positioned not simply around scale, but around the ability to buy, build, finance and operate infrastructure more efficiently as projects become larger, more interconnected and more capital intensive. The transaction also reflects how strategic advantage may increasingly shift toward integrated infrastructure platforms with the scale and coordination capability to manage rising system complexity.
• industrial growth • AI infrastructure
• manufacturing expansion • economic development
Transmission supports US global economic competitiveness in an electronic era.” Michael Skelly CEO and Co-Founder of GridUnited
The sequencing of these investments now materially affects: • speed to energization • reliability outcomes • customer affordability • economic growth
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Organized markets often face acute interconnection, transmission coordination and queue management challenges. Vertically integrated systems often have greater ability to align across the lifecycle, from planning, financing, to customer outcomes and infrastructure sequencing. The utilities likely to outperform over the next decade are not simply the ones deploying the most capital. They are likely to:
This is changing how leading organizations think about capital allocation itself. The question becomes:
Where should the next dollar go to unlock the most value fastest?
1. remove bottlenecks earlier 2. prioritize readiness over theoretical returns 3. sequence portfolios dynamically 4. optimize the overall system 5. improve utilization alongside new build programs
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Newton | From capital to delivery
This leads to a deeper structural issue. Infrastructure delivery is still largely organized around sequential phases with separate accountabilities: • development • permitting now matter 6
Why delivery models
Financing institutions are also becoming part of the delivery ecosystem, particularly where affordability, risk sharing and execution readiness are linked directly to funding availability. Execution readiness itself is becoming a financing criterion.
• engineering • procurement • construction • commissioning
Come to us with projects that are ready to go...” Gregory Beard Director of the DOE Office of Energy Dominance Financing
Each phase often has different owners, incentives, timelines, governance structures and performance measures. But the outcome often depends on the broader industrial complex working together across financing, permitting, transmission, supply chain and delivery systems. This creates a structural gap. Even where individual functions perform well, the broader delivery system can still fail to move at the pace required. This is not simply a capacity problem. It is a question of how delivery systems are:
Utilities are constantly balancing multiple strategic objectives simultaneously: • growth • reliability • affordability
• structured • integrated • orchestrated • managed end-to-end
• regulatory confidence • stakeholder legitimacy • execution readiness
These priorities need to be optimized together rather than independently. Affordability has become an execution outcome, not simply a regulatory outcome. Delivery predictability affects not only customer outcomes, but also:
• regulatory confidence • financing assumptions • investor credibility • long-term industrial competitiveness
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Newton | From capital to delivery
At the same time, infrastructure investors and large-load customers can generally model regulation. What creates greater uncertainty is inconsistent permitting, unclear cost allocation, unpredictable operating constraints and evolving infrastructure obligations. Capital can model rules. It struggles to model uncertainty. This is changing how leading organizations think about delivery. Increasingly, utilities are moving toward:
Utilities are therefore redesigning delivery models around throughput and outcomes rather than sequential activity management. The objective is now converting capital into energized infrastructure faster and with less friction across the delivery ecosystem.
• integrated portfolio management • earlier supply chain engagement • faster development sequencing
• greater orchestration across stakeholders • delivery models aligned around outcomes rather than activities
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Newton | From capital to delivery
What leading utilities are doing differently 7
Leading utilities are already beginning to adapt. Across the industry, organizations are: • prioritizing projects based on readiness • accelerating permitting and interconnection processes • securing supply chain capacity earlier • investing ahead of demand in engineering and workforce capability
Right now, utilities and states are competing not only on electricity prices, but on infrastructure readiness and energization speed. Utilities and regions able to provide clearer frameworks around transmission access, cost allocation, permitting and energization timelines will attract disproportionate industrial and hyperscale investment. Infrastructure readiness itself
• increasing orchestration across development, transmission and delivery teams
has become an economic development advantage.
These actions reflect a broader shift toward execution readiness as a strategic capability. Some utilities are also investing more heavily in advanced system planning, integrated portfolio sequencing, grid utilization optimization and flexibility management capabilities. These capabilities are helping utilities improve execution readiness across complex portfolios. At the same time, utilities are recognizing that infrastructure delivery itself is becoming a competitive differentiator. Infrastructure predictability and speed to energization are important for regional economic development, manufacturing growth and AI investment attraction.
Utilities are therefore treating delivery capability itself as strategic infrastructure.
The differentiator is becoming execution capable across the full lifecycle.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Where value will be won: build, utilize and orchestrate 8
The next phase of the US utility investment cycle will be defined by how effectively capital is converted into usable infrastructure capacity. Several factors are critically important: • execution readiness
This broadens the challenge from infrastructure expansion alone to industrial system optimization. The utilities that win this cycle will not necessarily be the ones investing the most capital. They will be the ones best able to build, utilize and orchestrate the system more effectively. Therefore, the utilities that outperform may not simply be those with the largest capital programs, but those best able to orchestrate the industrial complex around them. Value will be determined by execution readiness, orchestration capability, infrastructure predictability and speed to energization.
• orchestration capability • speed to energization • industrial system performance
• infrastructure utilization • flexibility management
Together, these factors are becoming critical differentiators across the sector.
The challenge is not only building new infrastructure faster. It is also extracting greater throughput and flexibility from the system already in place. Utilities are also looking beyond traditional infrastructure expansion toward greater flexibility and throughput across the existing grid. This includes: • improved grid utilization • flexible large-load management
• distributed storage • demand response • better use of existing transmission and distribution assets
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can help 9 Newton | From capital to delivery
Where Newton
Utilities are now looking for ways to improve throughput across the full delivery lifecycle, particularly where delays compound earliest and create the greatest downstream impact. For Newton, this is where operational improvement, data-led delivery and outcome-based partnership models become directly relevant. This requires more than advisory support alone. It requires integrated teams working alongside utilities and delivery partners from the earliest stages of development through energization, helping remove bottlenecks, improve sequencing and maintain accountability across the delivery system. As utilities increasingly operate within a broader industrial complex rather than isolated delivery ecosystems, orchestration itself becomes a source of competitive advantage.
This includes helping organizations: 1. prioritize and sequence investments across portfolios 2. accelerate permitting, readiness and energization 3. improve orchestration across the industrial complex 4. u se operational data and system analytics to identify bottlenecks earlier
The opportunity is not simply improving projects individually but improving throughput across the broader industrial system through earlier intervention, integrated delivery and faster bottleneck resolution. As infrastructure programs continue to scale, the ability to move from capital allocation to delivered outcomes faster is becoming an important competitive differentiator.
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The US power sector is entering a fundamentally different phase. The central challenge is no longer simply whether the industry can fund the investment required. It is now: How quickly can investment become delivered and energized infrastructure? Conclusion 10 Newton | From capital to delivery
The limiting factor is no longer capital availability alone, but execution readiness across the broader industrial complex. At the same time, the future grid will not be defined solely by building more infrastructure. It will also be defined by how effectively the industry utilizes, orchestrates and optimizes the infrastructure already in place. The next decade of utility investment will be defined not simply by access to capital, but by the ability to orchestrate the industrial complex required to convert capital into delivered infrastructure at pace while maintaining affordability, reliability and public confidence. Utilities that outperform may not simply be those with the largest capital programs, but those best able to orchestrate the broader industrial complex around them.
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Newton | From capital to delivery
Contacts
North America | Global expertise
Benoît Laclau Global Energy & Infrastructure Leader, Newton benoit.laclau@newtonimpact.com
Craig Hogget Energy and Infrastructure Partner, Newton Craig.Hoggett@newtonimpact.com
Emma O’Malley Energy and Infrastructure Partner, Newton Emma.OMalley@newtonimpact.com
Joseph Perry Director, Newton Joseph.Perry@newtonimpact.com
Fiona Roxburgh Director, Newton Fiona.Roxburgh@newtonimpact.com
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