The National Academies’ Climate Crossroads Initiative held a one-day symposium, Building the Grid of the Future, in Tempe, Arizona. Hosted at the Tempe Center for the Arts and livestreamed online, this event engaged Arizona experts from electric utilities, government, academia, and members of the public in discussions on existing strengths, future challenges, and what will be needed to support the future of Arizona’s electric grid.

Arizona’s grid is a large, complex, and dynamic system that must prepare for substantial demand growth driven by data centers, manufacturing, EVs, air conditioning, and rising temperatures, said keynote speaker Maren Mahoney, director, Arizona Governor’s Office of Resiliency. These dynamics were further explored in the opening panel, where participants highlighted climate, technical, and health-related dimensions of these trends. This discussion concluded that planning for the region requires looking beyond 2050, and thinking about how to prepare now for the effects of increasing heat, and future energy and water demands, while accounting for different needs across urban, rural, and tribal communities.

The future of electricity policy and planning in Arizona was further discussed in an afternoon panel that reviewed the distinctions between the particular electricity needs of rural communities and those of more urbanized areas. During this session, Tom Cooper (Salt River Project) pointed to the importance of a clear and supported innovation path for energy technologies, noting that the grid of the future isn’t a static end point we should be planning for – but instead is an infrastructural starting point for what the next generation wants to build.

Programming throughout the day explored solutions for Arizona’s electricity future, including a poster session featuring student and early-career researchers, and a panel showcasing innovative case-studies such as the role of solar and geothermal energy development, energy efficiency measures, the Hopi tribal microgrid project, and the city of Phoenix’s Energy Access Plan, presented by the city’s chief sustainability officer Carla De La Chapa.

The symposium concluded with a set of breakout sessions where participants took part in a guided thought exercise to envision Arizona’s future electricity system, centering on human health, economic growth, sustainability and resilience, or technological modernization. These discussions elevated topics including the structure of electricity system governance, the relationship between energy and water resources, the connections between technological solutions and social acceptance, and the future electricity workforce, among others.

The future of Arizona’s electricity system has important implications for the population of the region. Eugene Livar, Arizona's first chief heat officer, noted early in the day: Extreme heat is a public health emergency that makes reliable electricity (for cooling) essential for people’s survival. But the future of the Arizona grid also has implications beyond the region, explained Brent Heard (National Academies). He said that the dynamics in Arizona’s electricity system are ones that the U.S. as a whole will have to navigate as the climate warms and regional economies grow – and so, solutions developed in Arizona have the potential to inform actions taken across the nation.

This symposium was part of a set of regional engagements by the National Academies’ Climate Crossroads Initiative, supported by Waverly Street Foundation.