Upgrades and expansions to Entergy Louisiana’s generation and transmission infrastructure will help power a planned $5.8-billion Hyundai Motor Group steel manufacturing facility in Donaldsonville, La.

The facility, announced in late March, will produce 2.7 million metric tons of steel each year and help create an estimated 5,400 new jobs in the area. It also will solidify Hyundai’s vehicle manufacturing footprint within the United States, and the electric arc furnace serving the mill is expected to produce 70 percent fewer emissions than a traditional blast furnace.

“This historic investment will help set up Louisiana for long-term economic success, creating thousands of high-quality jobs and positioning our state as a leader in next-generation, low-carbon steel production,” Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said in a statement.

For years, Entergy Louisiana has worked with the Louisiana Public Service Commission and other stakeholders to upgrade its transmission capacity along an area that, to date, has been the largest undeveloped tract of land along the deepwater stretch of the Mississippi River.

Last year, the company installed self-healing grid technology along the border of the surrounding Ascension Parish and East Baton Rouge, making local infrastructure more resilient.

Entergy Louisiana separately announced a $39-million project to fortify nearly 60 miles of power lines in Ascension Parish. Upon completion, the upgrades will help prevent 5.6 million hours of outages and save nearly $140 million in restoration costs during the next five decades. Work on additional transmission projects in the surrounding area also is underway.

Increased industrialization and onshoring of manufacturing activity in the United States is contributing to significant energy demand growth across the country and creating new opportunities for America’s electric companies to collaborate with their industry partners.

“Entergy Louisiana is proud to support Hyundai Steel Company with the reliable, sustainable energy solutions needed to power such an ambitious and forward-thinking facility. Together, we are building a stronger, more sustainable future for our state,” May said.

Days after the Louisiana announcement, Hyundai opened its nearly $7.6-billion mass-production electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid plant in Ellabell, Ga., which is powered in part by nuclear energy generated from Georgia Power’s Vogtle Units 3 and 4. And, last year, AES Ohio unveiled a new $175-million substation, which powers a new Honda-LG Energy Solution EV battery plant in Fayette County, Ohio.

Manufacturing activity is one of several factors driving demand growth projections higher in the years ahead, alongside the electrification of transportation and the buildout of data centers supporting artificial intelligence technologies.

The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on U.S. roads is expected to reach 78.5 million in 2035, up from 4.5 million at the end of 2023, according to an updated series of EEI projections.

The projections—based on four independent forecasts from Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young, Guidehouse, and PwC, as well as analysis from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory—suggest more than 26 percent of the nearly 300 million cars and light trucks expected to be on U.S. roads in 2035 will be electric. 

Annual EV sales are projected to reach 7.7 million in 2030 and 12.2 million in 2035. An estimated 42.2 million charging ports—including 325,000 DC fast charging ports—will be needed to support this growth. America's electric companies already are making significant investments to expand access to EV charging, including investing more than $5.3 billion into charging infrastructure and other EV programs.

Read the full report at eei.org/evs.

EEI and our member companies—America’s investor-owned electric companies—are committed to delivering resilient clean energy to the customers and communities we serve, without compromising reliability or affordability. And, while many of our customers are residential, we also power large swaths of the U.S. economy, serving a growing array of businesses and industries and ensuring they have the electricity they need to maintain their operations and support their own customers and employees.

As the U.S. economy increasingly electrifies, our industry has never been more important to the continued vitality of American business. Electric companies contribute at least $865 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)—or 5 percent of the country’s total economic output. EEI and our member companies know that we are the first 5 percent of U.S. GDP, supporting other sectors that increasingly are electrifying, like the transportation and industrial sectors. Electric companies sold more than 3.9 million gigawatt-hours of electricity to customers in 2022, up 2.8 percent over the year, according to data included in the latest edition of EEI’s Statistical Yearbook of the Electric Power Industry. Commercial and industrial customers collectively accounted for nearly 61 percent of that total.

By 2050, commercial and industrial demand is projected to grow by 12.7 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively. And, those figures exclude the transportation sector, which continues to rapidly electrify. The National Renewable Energy Lab estimates more than 180,000 EV fast charging ports will be needed to accommodate 33 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030.

"As the U.S. economy increasingly electrifies, our industry has never been more important to the continued vitality of American business."

As the U.S. economy continues to electrify and digitize, EEI’s members are working with technology companies and other stakeholders to anticipate and meet their customers’ evolving needs, often through data collection and automated computing processes. Increasingly, our members also are working to support data centers that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates consume 10 to 50 times the energy-per-square foot of a typical commercial office building. DOE projects data centers account for 2 percent of all electricity consumed in the United States—a number that is only expected to rise in the coming years.

To help support the growing demand for data and energy, EEI member companies are working with some of the nation’s largest employers to power their operations with resilient clean energy. They also are partnering with technology companies to supply data centers with renewable energy— helping to power their operations and meet their emission-reduction and sustainability goals.

As we continue our work with large corporations and technology companies, we also are prioritizing America’s small and diverse businesses to ensure they share in the benefits of a resilient clean energy future. Many of our member companies maintain programs and resources that directly benefit small businesses, helping them save money and become more energy efficient.

Our customers have long served as our industry’s North Star, and we must continue to ensure that residential, commercial, and industrial customers are top of mind. Businesses large and small—and, by extension, their employees and customers—are depending on America’s electric companies to power their operations. And, as electricity demand climbs in the years and decades to come, our industry’s role as a growth engine will be vital to the overall health of the U.S. economy.

Phil Moeller is executive vice president, regulatory affairs and international programs at the Edison Electric Institute.

EEI and Alabama Power recently hosted a panel discussion focused on driving equity and inclusion into the shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) and the buildout of EV infrastructure. The panel was part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 52nd Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.

“EVs are obviously important to our business, but this particular topic of equity is part of Alabama Power's DNA,” said Houston Smith, vice president of government affairs at Alabama Power. “It is encouraging to see that we are having equity and inclusion conversations on the front end of this developing EV industry.”

During the session, which was moderated by Paula Glover, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, panelists discussed EV equitability and access concerns relevant not only to Alabama, but throughout the rest of the country. EEI projects that 140,000 EV fast charging ports will be needed to support the more than 26 million EVs expected to be on U.S. roads by 2030.

“We need to ensure our communities share in the economic opportunities and job creation from this industry,” U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) said during her introductory remarks. “We need to make sure in all of our communities that no one is left behind. We need to prepare for an EV future.”

Access to charging infrastructure was referenced throughout the session, as panelists described the challenges faced by EV owners who live in multi-unit housing, rural communities, or areas that historically have not seen the same level of infrastructure investments as higher-income areas.

“We know that not everyone will be able to plug in at home, so we need to address those challenges,” said Dr. Shelley Francis, co-founder and managing partner of EVNoire. “We understand that every community is different, and mobility needs are different.”

Dr. Francis noted that EVs have become more affordable for many Americans—and that more federal dollars are being directed toward the buildout of EV charging infrastructure—thanks to the passage of legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Among other supportive EV measures, the laws offer tax credits for the purchase of new or used EVs and EV-charging equipment, direct billions of dollars to support advanced vehicle and part manufacturing in the United States, and establish new national programs to expand the availability of public and fast charging equipment.

“The government using federal dollars to stimulate this industry is going to unlock tremendous opportunity,” Smith said, highlighting Alabama Power's work to ensure that this opportunity will benefit people throughout the state and the rest of the country. “A lot of our citizens don't live on the interstates where a lot of this infrastructure has been built. Our company is working to provide a match to state dollars to make sure disadvantaged communities can access critical charging infrastructure.”

Smith also pointed to the potential boon EVs and EV manufacturing will have on local labor markets. Alabama's manufacturing industry historically has been among the largest in the United States, accounting for more than 16 percent of Alabama's total economic output, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. More than 13 percent of Alabamans work in manufacturing. And, motor vehicles and parts manufacturing represents the largest segment of the industry in Alabama, accounting for roughly $6.7 billion in total economic output.

Smith estimates 80,000 jobs in Alabama are supported by auto manufacturing. He said Alabama Power maintains active partnerships with several community colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities throughout the state to ensure the science, technology, engineering, and math skills needed for more advanced EV manufacturing are being taught to students.

“Whether you like it or not, Alabama's economy depends on the future of automobiles. And, the future of automobiles is electric,” Smith said. “The jobs of the future that will support EVs, the software-based jobs, are very different from what we have today. We want to focus on inclusive training so that all communities across Alabama can benefit from these new and technologically advanced jobs.”

In November, Oregon took a big step forward in using electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce emissions from its waste management operations. The state’s first all-electric garbage truck completed its first pickup in Portland, thanks in part to support from Portland General Electric’s (PGE’s) Drive Change Fund.

“We’re proud to work together with customers and community members to demonstrate what’s possible in diverse industries in building an economy increasingly powered by electricity from renewable resources,” said the company in a press release.

The zero-emissions truck, operated by COR Disposal and Recycling, can hold a charge for two days of trash pickups and takes three hours to recharge. It will operate in East Portland—an area that PGE says has been disproportionately impacted by climate change and air quality concerns. PGE helped with the installation of charging infrastructure needed to operate the truck.

“This milestone for COR will create green jobs for our community while linking together social, economic, and environmental justice in ways our economy has never witnessed,” said COR CEO Alando Simpson, thanking PGE and other community partners “who made this fully electric truck a reality for the residents of East Portland.”

PGE’s Drive Change Fund was established in 2019 to help support local businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits interested in accelerating the electrification of their transportation fleets. In 2023, the fund, which is supported by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Clean Fuels program, made nearly $2.3 million in grants available to advance the electrification of transportation in Oregon.

The types of projects it helped support include a wildlife conservancy’s purchase of EVs to help transport injured animals and plants, a public works department’s investment into an electric street sweeper, and a health-care nonprofit’s use of an EV to deliver prescriptions to patients, among others. Information about the types of projects supported by the Drive Change Fund is available on PGE’s website. Grant applications for 2024 will be available in February.

Electric companies are investing more than $4.2 billion across the country to deploy charging infrastructure and to pave the way for an EV future, with more than 26 million EVs projected to be on U.S. roadways in 2030. The transportation sector is the economy’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In Oregon, the DEQ estimates transportation accounts for more than a third of the state’s carbon footprint.

Learn more about how electric companies are fueling the electrification of transportation.