Tantalus Highlights Utilities' Economic Pressure of Grid Modernization, Customer Affordability in Annual Survey
Technology company Tantalus Systems released its fourth annual Utility of the Future Survey, which highlighted the growing pressure faced by many utilities to match grid modernization investment while remaining mindful of affordable long-term rates for their customers.
Tantalus, which dedicates its data gathering services to helping utilities modernize their grid distribution, gathered this year’s responses from more than 100 public power and electric sector professionals across North America. What was discovered while understanding these pressures was that only 9% of the professionals surveyed said they felt “extremely prepared” in 2026 to modernize their grids.
That’s depsite 86% of those surveyed viewing grid modernization as a high or mid-level priority this year. Among the other top priorities highlighted alongside modernizing aging infrastructure were still maintaining reliability and resiliency expectations for its customers while pursuing financial stability and affordability strategies.
Many utilities are reportedly rethinking long-standing operating models and reshoring manufacturing needs amid unprecedented load growth and tightening grid constraints. The growing trend in electricity demand is something that 65% of public power and cooperative utilities surveyed stated they were extremely or somewhat concerned about involving their grid data management.
The integration of smart grids, a core component of grid modernization efforts, is expanding in the U.S. amid the need for grid sustainability. However, only 7% of those in the Tantalus survey stated they felt extremely prepared to address the challenge of grid data management.
External trends that Tantalus revealed driving most of the surveyed utilities' concerns outside of data management were extreme weather events, threats to cybersecurity, and challenges involving staffing.
“With so many competing challenges and priorities, many public power utilities and electric cooperatives feel the need to control costs while upgrading infrastructure,” said Peter Londa, president and CEO of Tantalus. “Taking a data-centric approach to grid modernization, one that delivers the right insights from the right device to the right application, no matter where the underlying data originates, is critical.”
Londa suggested that’s when utilities can ultimately maximize, finding the most cost-effective and low-risk paths to achieving grid modernization through using AI and management tools to assist in analyzing potential approaches. Tantalus states the full results of its study will be presented during this year’s Tantalus Users Conference (TUC), May 12 through May 14 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
