Trends Shaping the Utilities Industry in 2026  

From massive acquisitions and historic project restarts to major shifts in legislation, 2025 delivered a series of blockbuster moments that upended what had long stood as the status quo for the utilities industry.  

But beyond the headlines, these events show something deeper: utility leaders need to rethink their asset strategies and resource planning. They face two critical challenges: 

• Meeting the growing demands of today’s population  
• Balancing the need to modernize infrastructure and build the grid of the future  

As we move into 2026, there calls for a focus on how to turn these changes into competitive advantages. Looking ahead, these are the trends that promise to shape the utilities industry in the months to come. 

Nuclear Continues to Take Center Stage 

Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to drive power demand. In fact, recent estimates show that by 2030, there will be a 165% increase in overall demand.  

Nuclear has emerged as the best power source for data centers. From requiring 24/7 power to offering stability, nuclear power generation can meet the demand – and ongoing energy requirements – of AI. In 2025, Microsoft and Amazon were among the technology leaders that made announcements of critical partnerships to help them power their data centers.  

In 2026, nuclear will continue to take center stage in the AI power conversation. There will likely be more announcements of partnerships and site extensions. But, there will also be a focus on how the existing partnerships are progressing as they will be a clear indication of innovation within the world of AI.  

It’s important to note that AI plays a dual role in shaping the future of nuclear power generation. Beyond simply serving as the power source for these critical data centers – nuclear will continue to grow with its use of AI to manage operations, assets, and processes. License renewals are pushing nuclear power plants past their limits; which means that there’s a bigger focus on optimizing maintenance to ensure safety and reliability. These are key areas where AI can play a role in helping nuclear power plants continue to operate and generate to the levels required.  

Small Modular Reactors: Defining the Path to the Future 

The world continues to explore energy sources, and nuclear continues to rise to the top as a suitable option given the efficiency – and low carbon – for this electricity supply. But, when you typically think of nuclear, you think of the large power plants that take billions of dollars, and several years, to plan, permit, and build.  

Small modular reactors (SMRs) gained traction as a more efficient alternative. In early December, the World Nuclear Association was tracking more than 130 designs for SMRs.  

In 2026, the industry will continue to explore these reactors to understand the supply chain logistics required to move them from a factory floor to a project site. They’ll likely continue to be the darling in the media, and in the industry; as the industry aims to find the answers on whether the physics will work, if the supply chain can support, and how it will work operationally.  

Increasing Demand Collides with Renewable Energy Slowdown 

It’s projected that the U.S. will increase energy usage by 25% by 2030. This is a rate of growth the grid has not seen in decades. While AI data centers sit at the core of this increased demand, other key factors include increased power needs in manufacturing and transportation.  

However, this increase in demand hits at a time when the renewable energy faces its own shock – what some are calling a reliability reality check. While there are many benefits to solar and wind, the increasing demand requires always-on power – something that cannot be achieved with intermittent resources.  

Recent legislative changes have shifted required for renewable energy projects, requiring utilities organizations to break ground on projects by a certain timeline to receive the expiring tax credits. Recent market analyses note that there’s growing friction in the development pipeline. Many renewable projects are being paused, or even cancelled; which is leaving a critical supply gap.  

As this demand increases, utilities are challenged with updating their resource plans to adapt to these shifting needs of the market. As these plans are being evaluated, it’s important to have insight into critical aspects of existing – and planned – infrastructure, including:  

• Asset condition and health score to understand how aging assets will perform with the coming load spike, and respond accordingly  
• Future planned maintenance with insight into the cost of maintenance and resource availability  
• Scenario-based capital investment planning to understand the true return-on-investment (ROI) by evaluating its impact on reliability  

Aligning Capital Planning with Federal Requirements (FERC 1920) 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed Order 1920 in 2024, but the real impact is hitting the industry now. Utilities are working through compliance filings and associated documentation to hit the new requirements.  

By mandating that transmission providers extend their planning horizons to at least 20 years, FERC has shifted the industry from reactivity to a more proactive approach. This isn’t a new concept for the utilities industry, but it’s on an accelerated timeline that is bound to create some challenges for utilities organizations.  

The 20-year plans must look beyond just new investments, but also at how grid enhancing technologies (GETs) can help to improve existing infrastructure – aiming to optimize the existing grid before it’s expanded upon. And, these plans must have insight into how costs will be allocated.  

For many utilities, they have been focusing on long-range plans that extend for the next 5-10 years. The new changes to Order 1920 delivers a critical shift that extends this out much further. And, for many utilities organizations, this marks the need for a solution that can support them in this new mandate for future-proofing the grid.  

An asset investment planning (AIP) solution offers a technology-forward system that builds the overall strategy based on the organization’s value framework. With this information, the organization can outline where investments must be made to roll into the broader organizational goals.  

Endevor’s AIP solution, for instance, brings the data together in one solution to track it from the moment the project goes in front of the committee for review to when its final milestone reaches completion. For utilities organizations that must align under Order 1920, this solution can provide necessary visibility while offering tools to track capital projects for the decades to come.  

In Summary: 2026 in Review for the Utilities Industry  

Growing power demands, shifts in energy priorities, and new planning requirements are some of the key trends shaping the utilities industry in 2026. Adapting to these market dynamics will require a focus on bringing data across systems into one solution. 

Adapting to these shifts within the industry requires more than modernizing and building new infrastructure; it requires a new digital architecture. Utilities must focus on bringing data across systems into a single source of truth in order to break down the walls between engineering, operations, and finance.  

In doing so, utilities leaders can get real-time insight into what’s happening across assets, processes, and people. This empowers them to truly make data-driven decisions to navigate the complexities of the market – now and in the future.  

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