Power Grab: Why Creating a Campus Utility Master Plan Is More Important Than Ever

Over the past five years, electrification trends and regulations have changed at a head-spinning rate. Now, the meteoric rise of AI data centers has created even more competition and complexity in the utility and energy sphere. Costs are increasing, capacity is constrained, and long lead times for new infrastructure are creating major headaches for large campus stakeholders at places like airports, hospitals, universities, and industrial centers.

The United States Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration recently reported that energy use in the United States reached an all-time high in 2024 and is expected to increase in both 2025 and 2026. Most of this increase can be linked to the proliferation of data centers. According to a 2025 Pew Research report, data centers in the United States had a voracious appetite for energy in 2024, consuming 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity—more than 4% of the country’s total consumption. This figure is projected to grow by 133% to 426 TWh by 2030. This stiff competition for energy resources not only affects timing but it will also affect costs, making the projects more expensive than in the past. The strain of this datacenter buildout across the country is pushing timelines out and driving costs up for the typical large commercial clients to get new power capacity increases.  It is more important than ever to plan and identify new capacity demands.

This increase in power consumption will put a tangible strain on power grids across the United States. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Mark Christie, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission drew attention to the real possibility of grid failure and rolling blackouts during extreme weather events. Speaking specifically about the PJM grid, he said that, “A few years ago [he] felt that a blackout threat was on the horizon…but now [he’s] saying that the reliability risk is across the street.”

As operational expenses and the risk for power grid failures come closer to home, efficiency, lifecycle planning, and accurate forecasting become essential. Yet many campuses are simultaneously grappling with chronic deferred maintenance. Aging systems introduce real reliability risks, particularly as expanding campus footprints are rarely matched with proportional increases in operations and maintenance budgets. The result is a growing gap between system performance needs and available funding, making strategic decision-making more critical than ever.

A comprehensive Campus Utility Master Plan provides a structured way to close that gap. It helps institutions identify, prioritize, and justify maintenance and reinvestment needs by offering a clear picture of system conditions, capacity constraints, and risk points. Importantly, a utility master plan aligns infrastructure decisions with the institution’s growth plans. It pinpoints where existing capacity can support expansion and where new infrastructure is required, enabling leaders to nimbly phase their investments.

But even the strongest planning efforts fall short if they don’t connect directly to budget and governance realities. A utility master plan becomes actionable only when its recommendations are tied to capital budgeting cycles and supported by institutional funding commitments. When executed well, it transcends the role of being a technical document and becomes a strategic tool that protects reliability, supports growth, and positions the institution for long-term operational and financial resilience.

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