Data centers aren't the only thing straining the grid. Reshored manufacturing is the quieter half of the load-growth story.

A DOE transmission study and a looming semiconductor labor shortage both point to industrial reshoring as a second major load-growth driver — one with far less-established utility playbooks than data centers have.

Data centers get most of the attention in the load-growth conversation. DOE's draft national transmission needs study and a looming semiconductor labor shortage threatening billions in chip factory investment both point to a second major load-growth driver running in parallel: industrial reshoring.

A quieter, parallel driver

Reshoring and manufacturing expansion face many of the same interconnection and power-procurement challenges data centers do — but with far less-established utility playbooks to draw on, which can actually make siting harder in some respects. A hyperscale data center's power needs are, by now, a familiar conversation for most utilities. A new semiconductor fab's needs may not be.

Why this shouldn't get crowded out

The risk here is that the Load Growth & AI pillar's understandable focus on data centers and AI crowds out attention to industrial reshoring as an equally important, if less-covered, trend. A workforce shortage threatening billions in chip factory investment is itself a load-growth signal — new manufacturing capacity that doesn't get built is demand that doesn't materialize where DOE's transmission planning may have assumed it would.

Large commercial and industrial buyers in manufacturing and reshoring should not assume utilities have a data-center-grade playbook ready for their load profile. That gap is worth surfacing early in site selection, not discovering during interconnection study.