Thirty Years of Steady Electricity Growth Expected

摘要

AFTER YEARS of little or no growth in electricity usage, the U.S. power sector is poised for a new era of steady growth in consumption, new reports from the Electric Power Research Institute and the Energy Information Administration indicate. While the amount of final energy - total energy consumption by end users - is expected to decline more than 20 percent through 2050, electricity consumption is projected to rise between 32 percent and 46 percent during the same period, according to EPRI's "U.S. National Electrification Assessment," which was released last month. What's more, the assessment suggests total electric load in the U.S. could grow by as much as 52 percent by 2050 thanks to efficient electrification, which describes the adoption of end-use technologies such as 3-D printing, electric vehicles, indoor agriculture, and artificial intelligence.