Trump’s AI Plan Highlights the Urgent Need to Build a Smarter, Stronger Grid

President Trump’s recent announcement of America’s AI Action Plan, promoting American leadership in artificial intelligence, is an exciting call to action. It provides guidance on several key components need to support America’s role in AI, through enhanced employment training, support for a robust domestic supply chain, and much-needed short-term enhancements to the energy grid. However, this cannot be accomplished without the long-term infrastructure backbone required to make that future real: the electric transmission grid.

Whether AI is optimizing logistics in real time or enabling next-generation manufacturing, it is energy-hungry—and it’s not alone. Demand is rising from data centers, domestic manufacturing, and electrification, and the U.S. grid must evolve quickly to keep up. As the AI Action Plan says, we have no time to waste in “growing the grid for the future.” 

Labor and Supply Chains: Important Elements of AI Readiness
The President has called for rebuilding America’s industrial base, and the grid should be central to that mission. Transmission towers, transformers, advanced conductors, and sensors are all in short supply, as they’re often sourced from overseas. Reclaiming control of this supply chain can create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs while reducing exposure to global bottlenecks and geopolitical risks.

Moreover, just as transmission planning is frequently fragmented across regions, so too are specifications to which electric equipment is built. Establishing a limited number of distinct models would allow for more rapid production, lower prices, and greater availability of the vital components needed to build out the grid.

But building hardware is only half the battle. We need a skilled, trained workforce to support AI development and deployment, as well as to design, permit, and construct the grid of the future. From union electricians to linemen to software engineers, AI and transmission deployment both depend on a ready American workforce. Federal action should support programs that develop a robust, job-ready workforce at the speed that aligns with the rapid pace of technological deployment.

Smart Solutions for a Strained Grid
America’s AI Action Plan also takes both a short-term and long-term look at upgrading the grid. The Plan notes the need to “stabilize the grid of today” and proposes “implementing strategies to enhance the efficiency and performance of the transmission system.”  These strategies include deploying smarter grid technologies, such as enhanced and evolved transmission wires (also called advanced conductors), dynamic line ratings, and more.

Additionally, the plan calls for allowing consumers to “manage their power consumption during critical grid periods.” Demand response—where large electricity users reduce usage during peak hours—has long played a crucial role in keeping the system stable while cutting costs for consumers, and AI-enhanced system operations can go even further and unlock hidden capacity in the grid we already have.

Developers of data centers have employed these tactics as well as co-locating their facilities alongside large new power generators. This approach could help streamline power supply access for their energy-intensive operations.

However, while these methods are extremely helpful in squeezing additional energy out of the existing system and providing a roadmap for more efficient use of any new resources, they do have their limits. Co-location is very expensive—up to 2-4 times the cost of new generation on the grid—and can have a negative impact on reliability, where a data center must rely on only one power generator. Reducing usage from the grid can mean deploying additional, individually-owned power generation behind the meter. And advanced conductors are a valuable tool in yielding more power from existing transmission lines; but as one Congressional staffer noted, that’s like getting a little more beer from the foam, when what you really need is three more beers. 

Ultimately, the grid that will support America’s AI and energy future does not yet exist. We need a broader transmission system with strengthened regional and interregional lines that support grid resilience in the face of increasing demand and extreme weather.

This effort requires a long view—more than a presidential term. But it starts now. Congress and the Administration must work together to accelerate permitting, provide stable cost allocation frameworks, and offer incentives that reward smart planning. Federal leadership—consistent with the President’s call to for larger development of the grid to meet future needs—must set a clear direction and give state and private partners the tools to follow through.

Building AI’s Backbone
President Trump’s AI Action Plan envisions American leadership in AI, but that will depend in large part on whether we have the power to support it. AI is a software revolution—but it’s running on hardware that demands electricity, stability, and speed.

Building that backbone will require the same kind of ambition, investment, and American ingenuity that the President is now channeling toward AI. Let’s not miss the opportunity to align those priorities and ensure that as we lead in artificial intelligence, we also lead in the infrastructure that makes it possible. As the President’s Plan states, “the United States can rise to the challenge of winning the AI race while also delivering a reliable and affordable power grid for all Americans.”