North American Utilities Face Resilience Gap Despite Increasing Risks

CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- S&C Electric Company has released findings from a survey revealing a significant gap in the resilience of North American utility grids. According to the 2026 State of Grid Resilience, conducted by Zpryme on behalf of S&C, utility leaders are navigating a complex landscape marked by rising operational risks and increasing electricity demand, while grappling with affordability pressures that constrain their ability to invest in grid improvements.

The survey, which polled 141 utility and energy industry professionals across North America, found that 75% of respondents reported higher operational risk than five years ago. Nearly 80% expect resilience-related investments to increase over the next five years. However, 61% of respondents identified affordability and customer rate pressure as the single greatest barrier to accelerating these investments.

The research highlights a disconnect between the resilience goals utilities are aiming to achieve and the practical realities of investment. Only 48% of respondents agreed that current reliability metrics adequately capture performance during major events. Traditional metrics often exclude "Major Event Days," which are critical for assessing the true resilience of the grid. This gap could influence investment decisions, potentially leading to underinvestment in critical infrastructure.

Distribution technologies, which are key to improving grid resilience, are lagging in deployment. Nearly 60% of respondents noted that most customer-impacting outages originate from the distribution grid. Among the technologies ranked highest for resilience return, FLISR (Fast-acting Load Interrupting Relays), protective devices, and distribution automation were cited. Yet, only 12% of respondents have fully deployed self-healing distribution automation, with 52% citing capital cost as the primary barrier to broader automation.

Load growth is putting additional pressure on grid systems. 54% of respondents expect projected load growth to be very or extremely significant for their systems over the next decade. 82% of respondents anticipate data centers and artificial intelligence to be leading drivers of load growth across the grid.

S&C Electric Company is introducing its new brand positioning, "Resilience, Engineered," which builds on over a century of engineering expertise. This positioning underscores S&C's focus on addressing one of the energy industry's defining challenges: strengthening the distribution grid for a future with growing electricity demand, a more challenging operating environment, and greater dependence on resilient power.

The full 2026 State of Grid Resilience report and resilience solutions can be explored at S&C Electric Company's website.