According to Fortune, Exelon CEO Calvin Butler issued a stark warning at the Brainstorm AI conference, stating the “warning lights are on” for U.S. grid resilience and consumer prices. He compared the situation to ignoring a car’s check-engine light, noting that after 15 years of flat demand, electricity generation is now expected to grow by 2.4% in 2025 and nearly 2% again in 2026, driven by AI and electrification. Residential electricity prices have already skyrocketed about 30% since 2021, with costs up 7.5% year-over-year as of September 2025, and are projected to keep rising. Utility bills have now become the leading pressure on inflation, surpassing even food costs, and Butler bluntly stated that prices “are going to go up” next year. To combat this, he argues for immediate investment in all generation types, from renewables to nuclear, as renewables are projected to hit 25% of U.S. generation for the first time in 2026.
The new math of power demand
Here’s the thing: the utility sector’s basic math just got upended. For over a decade, they operated in a world of predictable, stagnant demand. Efficiency gains and slow population growth meant you could mostly just maintain what you had. Now? The AI boom is like slamming the accelerator on a cold engine. Data centers are massive, 24/7 power hogs, and they’re popping up faster than new power plants can be permitted and built. And that’s on top of the slower, steadier climb of electrifying everything from cars to home heating. The system wasn’t built for this double-whammy. So when Butler, who also chairs the Edison Electric Institute, says “We need every electron to make a difference,” he’s not being poetic. He’s admitting the old playbook is useless.
Your bill is now a political hot potato
This isn’t just an infrastructure story. It’s a kitchen-table economics story with huge political stakes. Think about it: the article points out that utility costs have now surpassed gas and grocery prices as a top political bellwether. That’s wild. People might grumble about egg prices, but they *have* to pay the electric bill. A 30% hike since 2021 isn’t abstract; it’s a real bite out of monthly budgets, especially for lower-income families. When the CEO of a major utility serving Chicago to D.C. says “people are going to suffer” if the grid breaks on the hottest or coldest days, he’s sketching a scenario of public outrage waiting to happen. Politicians hate nothing more than angry voters holding unpayable bills. So the pressure to “fix it now” isn’t just technical—it’s survival for both utilities and the politicians who regulate them.
The “all of the above” energy dilemma
Butler’s call for everything—renewables, nuclear, natural gas—is pragmatic, but it’s also a minefield. He bemoaned the Trump administration’s attacks on wind and solar, which shows the political volatility. Building new nuclear plants takes decades and tens of billions. New natural gas plants face environmental opposition and their own regulatory hurdles. Even transmission lines, like the 220-mile project Exelon is partnering on with NextEra Energy, get bogged down in legal battles for years. So “immediate action” in the utility world is a relative term. It’s a race against a demand curve that’s shooting up like a hockey stick. And in the meantime, guess who funds all this new infrastructure? Ratepayers. Through those ever-higher bills. It’s a brutal cycle: we need massive investment to avoid crisis, but that investment guarantees the higher prices everyone is already panicking about.
So what actually happens next?
Look, Butler’s prognosis is probably right. Prices *will* go up. The more interesting question is where the pain gets distributed. Will we see tiered rates where data center operators pay a huge premium? Will certain regions with more grid capacity become the new “AI hubs,” creating a massive economic divergence? And can efficiency improvements—in data center cooling, in home appliances, in industrial systems—act as a sufficient pressure valve? Probably not enough on their own. This is a foundational capacity issue. For industries that depend on stable, high-quality power—like manufacturing or, well, any operation using industrial panel PCs and control systems—this isn’t a distant worry. It’s a direct threat to operational continuity and cost forecasting. The “check engine” light is flashing. We’re all just hoping the engine holds together long enough for the mechanics to catch up.
