The transmission infrastructure problem facing AI data center development is well understood by now. Grid interconnection queues stretch five to seven years in the most congested US markets, for instance. New transmission lines take a decade or more to permit, finance, and build. In other words, conventional solutions are too slow. The gap between AI infrastructure demand and available grid capacity is, consequently, widening faster than new generation and new transmission can close it. What is less well understood is that a third option exists. It can double or triple the capacity of existing transmission lines in months rather than years, at a fraction of the cost of new construction. It is called re-conductoring. The pace of deployment, however, is far below what the current moment requires.
Re-conductoring replaces the conventional steel-core aluminium cables that make up most of America’s transmission grid with advanced conductor technology. Aluminium conductor composite core cables can carry significantly more power across the same physical infrastructure. Towers stay in place. Rights-of-way stay in place. Substations at either end require upgrades, but those upgrades are manageable. What changes is the wire itself. That change, however, unlocks capacity the existing infrastructure was physically unable to deliver.
Why Re-Conductoring Matters Specifically for AI Infrastructure
The specific constraint delaying the most data center projects is not, in fact, a lack of generation capacity or a shortage of substations. It is the capacity of the transmission lines connecting substations to the high-voltage grid. A substation that could in principle serve a 500-megawatt campus may sit on a corridor delivering only 100 megawatts with its existing conductors. A utility cannot approve a 500-megawatt interconnection on a 100-megawatt corridor. The developer waits for transmission upgrades. Those upgrades go into a capital planning queue that takes years to clear.
Re-conductoring addresses this specific constraint directly and, in many cases, rapidly. Upgrading the conductors on the existing corridor allows the utility to approve interconnection for a significantly larger load. No new infrastructure is required. The process is faster, moreover, because it does not require new rights-of-way, new environmental assessments, or the full transmission planning process that new lines require. In markets where re-conductoring applies to the specific corridors constraining interconnection approvals, developers can compress the capacity availability timeline significantly.
The Technology Behind the Upgrade
Aluminium conductor composite core cables have been commercially available for over two decades. Utilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia have deployed them on high-voltage transmission lines. Their performance advantage over conventional steel-core aluminium conductors is substantial. They operate at higher temperatures without the sag that conventional conductors experience at elevated loads. Consequently, they carry more power safely on the same tower and right-of-way geometry. They are also lighter, which allows longer spans between towers and reduces the structural load on existing infrastructure.
The temperature advantage is, in particular, significant for AI infrastructure applications. Conventional transmission conductors typically operate at around 75 degrees Celsius. Advanced composite core conductors operate continuously at 180 to 210 degrees Celsius. That more than doubles the effective current-carrying capacity of the same physical installation. For a transmission corridor constraining data center interconnection approvals, replacing its conductors with advanced composite technology can unlock capacity immediately rather than after years of construction.
The Economics Are More Compelling Than They Appear
The cost comparison between re-conductoring and new transmission consistently favours re-conductoring by a substantial margin. New high-voltage transmission in the United States costs between $1 million and $4 million per mile, depending on terrain, land acquisition, and permitting complexity. Re-conductoring an existing line typically costs between $200,000 and $600,000 per mile. That is a 60% to 90% reduction against new build. Factor in the capacity gain, specifically doubling or tripling a line’s capacity for a fraction of the cost of a new one, and the economics become even more compelling.
The financial logic extends, consequently, to data center developers and hyperscalers who are increasingly willing to fund grid infrastructure upgrades directly in exchange for priority interconnection access. As we have covered in our analysis of how US utilities are becoming the most powerful players in AI infrastructure, the model of customer-funded interconnection upgrades is becoming more common. Re-conductoring is a particularly attractive candidate for customer-funded upgrades. Its lower cost and faster deployment timeline reduce both the capital required and the period over which the investment is at risk before interconnection is available.
Where Re-Conductoring Is Being Deployed
Deployment of advanced conductors on US transmission infrastructure has, notably, accelerated since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, both of which included provisions supporting grid modernisation. The Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office has funded re-conductoring projects as part of its broader transmission modernisation programme. Biden’s transmission action plan, moreover, specifically identified re-conductoring as a priority near-term pathway.
The Trump administration has continued to support re-conductoring as part of its approach to accelerating energy infrastructure deployment. The technology bypasses many of the permitting and rights-of-way challenges that have made new transmission construction so slow. Re-conductoring does not, moreover, require new environmental impact assessments for new structures. It does not trigger the full Federal Power Act review process that new transmission lines require. Utilities can often implement it under existing operational authority, without the lengthy regulatory proceedings that new construction demands.
Utilities That Are Moving
Several utilities have consequently begun incorporating re-conductoring into their near-term capital programmes in response to the surge in large industrial load interconnection requests. AEP, serving large portions of the Midwest and Southwest, has identified specific corridors where re-conductoring can accelerate interconnection approvals for data center projects. Duke Energy has referenced re-conductoring as part of its strategy for serving the growing data center market in the Carolinas. Dominion Energy, which faces the most acute congestion of any major US utility, has included re-conductoring projects in its most recent transmission plans.
The pace remains, however, constrained by the same utility capital planning and regulatory approval processes that govern all transmission investment. Even re-conductoring projects without new rights-of-way or environmental assessments still require utility board approval, inclusion in transmission planning processes, and in some cases state regulatory approval. Those processes take time. The accumulated demand from the current AI infrastructure buildout is creating a backlog of re-conductoring needs that utility capital programmes are not yet moving fast enough to address.
The Technology and Supply Chain Constraints
The conductor technology itself is not, however, the limiting factor. Several companies manufacture advanced composite core conductors globally. 3M produces the ACCR conductor widely deployed in the United States. Several Asian manufacturers now offer cost-competitive alternatives. Lead times for conductor procurement have lengthened as demand has increased. They remain, however, significantly shorter than lead times for major power transformers or large-scale electrical switchgear.
The installation workforce is, in fact, a more binding constraint. Re-conductoring requires specialised line crews with experience on high-voltage lines using equipment appropriate for composite core conductors. The techniques differ from conventional conductor installation in several important respects. The pool of qualified line workers with this specific experience is limited. Competition for their services has intensified as re-conductoring project volumes have grown. This constraint is addressable through training programmes and through the increasing availability of utility-scale contractors who have built composite conductor installation capabilities. It is, however, a genuine bottleneck that extends project timelines beyond what conductor procurement and engineering schedules would otherwise require.
What Needs to Change to Accelerate Deployment
The gap between re-conductoring’s near-term potential and the actual pace of deployment reflects, therefore, several barriers that are addressable but have not yet been systematically addressed. The most significant is, specifically, the integration of re-conductoring more explicitly into the interconnection study process. When utilities receive interconnection applications for large loads, they should evaluate re-conductoring as a potential solution wherever existing transmission corridors are the binding constraint. Many utilities do not, however, yet do this systematically.
The second barrier is the financing model. Re-conductoring projects funded through utility rate bases go through the full capital expenditure approval process, which can take years. Customer-funded re-conductoring is a faster path. In this model, the data center developer funds the conductor upgrade in exchange for the interconnection capacity it unlocks. The approach, however, requires a cost recovery and interconnection agreement framework that is not yet standardised across utility jurisdictions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued guidance on customer-funded transmission upgrades. Implementation, however, varies significantly across regional transmission organisations and individual utilities.
The Financing and Regulatory Framework
The third barrier is, ultimately, awareness. Re-conductoring remains less well understood among data center developers, hyperscalers, and their grid consultants than the more familiar options of waiting in the interconnection queue or pursuing behind-the-meter generation. Developers who do engage utilities on re-conductoring as a specific option, rather than accepting the standard queue timeline as the only path, consistently find more receptive utility partners than they expected. Those conversations are not, consequently, happening as often as they should, because too few developers know to have them.
As we have covered in our analysis of the time-to-power crisis as AI infrastructure’s hidden scaling ceiling, the projects that solve the power access problem earliest are the ones that everything else follows from. Re-conductoring is one of the most actionable near-term tools available for solving it in markets where existing transmission corridors are the specific constraint. The pace of deployment needs to accelerate significantly before it can meaningfully shift the interconnection timeline for the AI infrastructure projects that need it most.
