Electricity System Transformation Vital to Meet Future Needs, Arthur D. Little Blue Shift Report Finds

Arthur D. Little (ADL)’s Blue Shift Institute today published The Future of Electricity - From Building Capacity to Shaping Flexibility. The in-depth new report explores the growing pressures on electricity systems worldwide, and how they must transform to meet radically changing needs. With demand predicted to rise by 40-55% by 2035, it identifies practical strategies for maintaining reliability, affordability, and resilience.

Electricity systems face profound challenges due to the accelerating electrification of end uses, increasing renewables deployments, and the digitalization of economies. Rising variability and system stress is already leading to instability, grid congestion, and disruption. Demonstrating this, an April 2025 blackout across the Iberian Peninsula led to at least eight deaths and an estimated US $1.8 billion in economic losses.

Based on in-depth research and expert interviews, the report outlines the need to reshape infrastructure and operations to move from supply-follows-demand dynamics towards a flexible buffer model. Further investment is critical, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimating that US $3-4 trillion is required by 2030 in grid investment alone to keep pace with electrification. The study also looks beyond 2035 to explore the technological, institutional, market and regulatory solutions needed to meet longer term needs.

The report segments electricity markets into five key archetypes, explaining the different intervention strategies required by each. It highlights both mature and emerging technologies and activities, such as grid expansion, battery energy storage systems (BESS), demand side response (DSR), virtual power plants (VPPs), vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions, market coupling, and digital operational tools necessary to overcome current and future challenges.

Based on analysis of current and emerging trends, the report sets out four potential scenarios for electricity systems, and makes six strategic recommendations for the future, including reengineering grid investment, embedding flexibility, incorporating strategic insurance against key uncertainties and introducing adaptive governance.

Florence Carlot, Partner in Arthur D. Little’s Global Energy & Utilities Practice, comments: “The next electricity race will not be won by those who simply build more capacity, but by those who can orchestrate flexibility at scale. Resilience will depend on the ability to coordinate demand, storage, networks and markets in real time, turning complexity from a risk into a source of national and regional competitive advantage.”

Report download: www.adlittle.com/en/future-electricity

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