In a recent Forbes article, Chase Weir offers a perspective that deserves serious attention across the utility industry. He suggests that the electric grid’s greatest constraint is not generation, not transmission capacity, and not even capital.
It is time.
At first glance, that may seem like a philosophical framing. But the more one reflects on the realities utilities are facing today, the more it becomes clear that this observation is not only accurate - it is foundational.
Across the country, projects are being completed but not energized. Interconnection queues continue to grow, often stretching four to five years or longer. Infrastructure exists, but access to it is delayed. Capacity is available in some hours and constrained in others. The system is not static, but it is not keeping pace with the velocity of demand.
In that sense, time is not just a constraint. It is the constraint.
Weir introduces the idea of “Return on Time” as a way to rethink how we evaluate grid performance. For decades, the industry has focused on return on capital - building assets, expanding the rate base, and planning for steady, predictable growth. That model worked well in a different era, when demand evolved gradually and long timelines were acceptable.
But today’s environment is fundamentally different. Electrification, AI-driven data centers, reshoring of manufacturing, and distributed energy resources are all accelerating demand in ways that compress timelines and expose the limits of traditional planning. The question is no longer simply what infrastructure should be built. The more pressing question is how quickly that infrastructure can deliver value.
That is where the concept of “Return on Time” becomes so powerful. It shifts the conversation from cost alone to speed, utilization, and responsiveness.
At the same time, it raises an important question that sits just beneath the surface of Weir’s argument: if time is the limiting factor, what are the solutions that can move at the speed the grid now requires?
There are many promising approaches - demand flexibility, improved data visibility, better coordination across stakeholders. All of these will play an important role. But there is also a practical, proven solution that is often underappreciated in these discussions.
Reconductoring.
More specifically, reconductoring with high-capacity, energy-efficient advanced conductors such as CTC Global's ACCC® Conductor
If we look at the challenge through the lens of time, the advantages become difficult to ignore. Building new transmission infrastructure remains essential, but it is also time-intensive. Siting, permitting, and construction can take a decade or more, and in many regions those timelines are only getting longer.
Reconductoring, by contrast, works within the existing footprint of the grid. It leverages established rights-of-way, avoids many of the delays associated with new line development, and can often be completed in a fraction of the time. Yet the impact can be substantial - frequently doubling the capacity of an existing line while improving overall system performance.
In the context of “Return on Time,” that is a compelling value proposition.
There is another dimension to this discussion that is equally important. Time is not only lost in waiting for infrastructure to be built. It is also lost every day through inefficiency. Legacy conductors operating at lower temperatures and higher resistance dissipate energy that could otherwise be delivered to customers. Those losses translate into additional generation requirements, higher operating costs, and increased emissions.
Advanced conductors address this directly. By reducing electrical losses and enabling higher operating temperatures with lower sag, they allow more power to be delivered over the same infrastructure, more efficiently and more reliably. In effect, they increase both the capacity and the velocity of the system.
This is where Weir’s emphasis on utilization becomes especially relevant. Improving utilization is not just about better software or more responsive loads. It also depends on the physical capabilities of the grid itself. A constrained line cannot be fully utilized, no matter how sophisticated the control systems may be.
Reconductoring expands those physical limits. It transforms existing assets into higher-performing components of a more flexible and responsive network. In doing so, it complements many of the other strategies now being discussed across the industry.
None of this diminishes the importance of new infrastructure, nor the role of demand-side solutions. Rather, it highlights the need for a portfolio of approaches that can collectively address the grid’s evolving challenges. What makes reconductoring stand out is its ability to deliver meaningful results quickly, using assets that are already in place.
And in a time-constrained environment, speed matters.
Utilities today are being asked to do something unprecedented: to expand capacity, improve reliability, integrate new technologies, and contain costs - all at once, and all under increasing time pressure. Meeting that challenge will require not only new thinking, but also a willingness to deploy solutions that align with the realities of the moment.
If time is indeed the grid’s most critical constraint, then it follows that the most valuable solutions will be those that unlock capacity the fastest.
Reconductoring with advanced conductors such as ACCC® Conductor (already deployed to more than 1,500 projects in 30 U.S. states and 70 countries) is one of those solutions.
It does not require reinventing the grid. It simply allows the grid we already have to perform at a level that matches the demands of today - and the expectations of tomorrow.
And in an energy landscape defined by speed, that may be exactly what is needed.