The Electrical Grid Wasn’t Built for This
The electrical grid that powers Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and the rest of the country is, in many areas, nearing the end of its intended service life. Most of this infrastructure was built in the 1960s and 1970s, designed for a smaller population, a different mix of energy resources, and electricity demands that bear little resemblance to today’s realities. Across the many utility projects RETTEW supports throughout the region, we see firsthand the growing disconnect between an aging grid and the modern demands being placed upon it. From increasing electrification and economic growth to the rapid expansion of data centers and renewable energy resources, the system is being asked to do far more than it was originally designed to handle
To understand the scale of the challenge, it helps to know the grid operates in two distinct layers. The transmission system moves large amounts of electricity over long distances, from power plants to regional hubs. The distribution system then steps that power down and delivers it to homes, businesses, and industrial customers at the local level. Both layers are aging. Both are under pressure. And the demands being placed on each are growing in different ways.
Age is catching up with the system. From 2019 to 2022, the frequency of power outages more than doubled compared to the previous six years. Maintenance costs are rising, and emergency repairs are becoming more common. Utilities today are managing a compounding challenge. They must keep aging assets running reliably while simultaneously trying to replace them, often with equipment that carries manufacturing lead times measured in years rather than months. The result is a growing challenge for utilities tasked with maintaining reliability while relying on assets that are decades beyond their original expectations.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has been tracking this decline. The ASCE recently gave U.S. energy infrastructure a D+ grade, down from a C- just a few years ago, representing what analysts describe as a $5 trillion problem.
These aren’t abstract projections. A U.S. Department of Energy report found that 70% of power transformers are 25 years or older, 60% of circuit breakers are 30 years or more, and 70% of transmission lines have been in service for 25-plus years. When a transformer fails today, replacing it isn’t a matter of weeks. Lead times for large power transformers now average 128 weeks, with some specialized units taking up to four years to manufacture and deliver. That reality is reshaping how utilities plan, prioritize, and respond to equipment failures across the region.
Age alone isn’t the only issue. Transmission lines were designed for a smaller, less energy-intensive population and struggle to handle increased loads. The grid was also built around a fundamentally different model, one based on centralized fossil fuel plants generating power that flowed in one direction to end users, a model that no longer reflects how energy is produced or consumed.
Electrification is widening that gap at the distribution level. Electric vehicles are adding uneven, localized demand to circuits never designed for simultaneous fast charging. Electric heating and industrial electrification are layering additional pressure on top of that. At the same time, the digital infrastructure modern society depends on, from data centers and cloud platforms to healthcare networks and financial systems, is placing extraordinary new demand at the transmission level. None of these forces arrived together by design, but they are converging on a system that was built long before any of them existed.
Weather-related outages are more than doubling, from an average of 109 minutes of downtime per year between 2013 and 2015 to 297 minutes per year between 2020 and 2022. These outages cost American businesses an estimated $150 billion annually. In RETTEW’s work supporting utilities across the region, our clients are focused not only on reliability but also on resilience, meaning how quickly the grid can recover after major storms and unexpected events. That distinction matters because an aging system that struggles to recover quickly compounds the economic and operational impact of every outage it experiences.
For utilities, municipalities, and industrial customers RETTEW works with across the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia PJM region, the question is no longer whether the grid needs significant investment. It’s whether investment can move fast enough to keep pace with what’s coming.
Additional reading: ASCE 2025 Infrastructure Report Card — Energy | SEPA: The Aging U.S. Power Grid
Russalle Zambelli
Ms. Zambelli is a Utilities & O&G Market Lead for RETTEW's energy, development, and industrial clients. She has more than 15 years of experience in securing oil and gas, right-of-way, land, and survey lease agreements. Ms. Zambelli is adept at building and maintaining client relationships by communicating regularly with clients and understanding their needs. She also develops new relationships with potential clients, negotiates master service agreements, and uses her business development expertise to communicate with land owners, survey, geotechnical, engineering, and environmental clientele.
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