Google, Tesla, and HVAC firm Carrier have formed a new lobbying group focused on grid capacity in the US.

The new “industry-led coalition,” known as Utilize, was launched this week to “address the most urgent challenges facing the US energy system,” which it says is growing electricity demand and rising power bills driven in part by an “electric grid that is built for short periods of peak use but underutilized most of the time.”

The group says the grid is underutilized and designed for brief bursts of high demand, resulting in large amounts of idle capacity. Utilize aims to advocate for “smarter, faster, and more affordable use of existing grid infrastructure” and wants to help the US meet growing demand from data centers, manufacturing, and electrification “without unnecessary cost or delay.”

“For decades, we’ve built the grid to meet peak demand, even though large portions of it sit unused for most hours of the year,” said Ian Magruder, executive director of Utilize.

“It’s like building an airplane that only flies with full passengers a few times a year. That excess capacity is hiding in plain sight, and new technologies give us the opportunity to unlock it. Better grid utilization is one of the fastest, most practical levers states can pull to reduce power bills while supporting economic growth.”

The coalition looks likely to push for greater use of many of the technologies and services offered by its members – including battery storage, demand response, virtual power plants, grid-enhancing technologies, and grid visibility tools.

Utilize members include Carrier, Google, Renew Home, Sparkfund, SPAN, Alphabet spin-out Verrus, and Tesla – the group said its members represent batteries, smart home systems, data centers, HVAC, residential virtual power plants, and grid-interactive data centers.

The group says it supports technology-neutral policies that increase grid utilization by aligning planning, incentives, and regulatory frameworks around affordability, reliability, and speed to “ensure better grid utilization becomes a core principle of modern grid planning.”

“Battery storage and distributed energy resources are already demonstrating how smarter use of the grid can improve affordability. These technologies can help meet demand during the most constrained hours, while avoiding the need for additional generation and grid infrastructure investments,” said Colby Hastings, senior director of residential energy at Tesla. “With the right policy frameworks, these resources can reduce costs for customers while strengthening grid reliability.”

Ellen Zuckerman, head of energy market development for North & South America at Google, added: “As demand grows, the priority has to be meeting new load without driving up costs for existing customers. Google is proud to support Utilize’s work to unlock underused capacity so growth in electricity demand translates into broader affordability and system benefits."

Utilize said some of its members backed Virginia’s grid-utilization bill (SB 621 / HB 434), which would require utilities to quantify how much of the grid is actually being used and incorporate those metrics into State Corporation Commission (SCC) planning and regulatory review.

The group said the legislation would direct the SCC and utilities to establish grid utilization metrics and use them to inform future grid investment decisions. The measure is now awaiting Governor Spanberger’s signature.

Utilize said it is working with governors and lawmakers in other states that are potentially interested in replicating this approach.