Transportation electrification is reshaping how utilities approach load growth, infrastructure investment, and long‑term planning. What was once a future consideration is now unfolding in real time, as electric vehicle adoption expands into every region of the country. EPRI EV sales data for 2025 shows year‑over‑year growth of approximately 16% in the south central region, 15% in the southeast, and 12% in the Midwest. As the total cost of ownership improves, fleets are increasingly electrifying as a near‑term business decision. The adoption of EVs, particularly in fleets with large charging loads, is outpacing traditional grid planning timelines, particularly as EV demand coincides with broader building electrification, requiring utilities to engage earlier and plan differently than before.
For decades, utilities planned around large, predictable loads with long lead times, catered to industrial facilities, commercial developments, or new substations that would take years to materialize. Electric transportation has flipped that model. Medium- and heavy-duty EV fleets can now be procured and deployed in months, and create high-impact loads that demand earlier coordination and more information.
On a recent episode of EPRI’s podcast, The EPRI Current, EPRI transportation experts Mike Rowand and Watson Collins discussed how EV load growth, particularly from fleets, may ultimately rival or surpass other high-profile sources of demand, such as data centers. The key question for utilities is no longer just whether new load is coming, but where, how quickly, and how much visibility they will have in advance. Without early insight, utilities risk reactive upgrades, higher costs, and strained customer relationships. With over 3,200 electric utilities in the U.S., each with its own processes and points of contact, fleet operators and charging providers often struggle to determine whom to engage and when.
GridFAST™ was developed to address this early-stage coordination gap. The platform provides a secure, centralized portal that standardizes early communication between utilities and EV commercial customers. Using a standardized intake form, customers can submit preliminary project information and match a site to the correct utility years before construction begins across any U.S. service territory.
For utilities, this early signal enables proactive planning – not just for individual projects, but for aggregated demand across territories. Importantly, GridFAST does not replace a utility’s interconnection or service request process; instead, it complements them by moving the initial conversation upstream, so that changes remain affordable and timelines remain flexible. Fleet operators using GridFAST have highlighted how the platform simplifies multi-site planning for them by identifying a single point of contact for them, and through the standardized project information that is captured for the utility in the tool. This translates into earlier visibility into future demand that might otherwise arrive with little notice, allowing investments to align more closely with actual customer needs.
As Rowand and Collins note in The EPRI Current, uncertainty does not equal inaction. Utilities don’t need perfect forecasts to move forward, but they do need better information earlier in the process. GridFAST provides those signals, enabling utilities to plan with greater confidence even as the pace of electrification evolves. For EV customers, early engagement can prevent overbuilding, reduce delays, and align charging strategies with the grid's realistic capacity.
With uncertainty around gas and diesel prices on the horizon, there is even greater renewed interest in EVs. Tools enabling earlier, clearer communication between customers and utilities show that utilities and customers can move faster together, without sacrificing reliability or affordability. Developed in collaboration with utilities, fleets, and charging providers, GridFAST is a cornerstone of EPRI’s electric transportation program and EVs2Scale2030™ initiative, which focuses on addressing barriers to large-scale transportation electrification.
To learn more or request a GridFAST demo, contact [email protected].