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The We Mean Business Coalition outlines ten policy principles to help governments accelerate clean electrification by providing clear strategic direction, financial incentives, infrastructure investment, and regulatory standards. The framework emphasizes that while pathways vary by national context, governments must address system-wide barriers—such as grid connection delays and fossil fuel subsidies—to unlock large-scale business investment and enhance energy security.

The briefing advocates for a "soft energy path" based on efficiency and design rather than increasing energy supply. It argues that current anxieties over AI electricity demand and critical mineral shortages can be addressed through demand flexibility, efficiency, and system optimization rather than building more power plants and mines.

The report argues that Canada's historical advantage of low-cost electricity is at risk due to outdated grid infrastructure, cautious energy planning, and policy instability. By comparing Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec with international peers like Texas and Germany, the analysis finds that Canadian grids often under-plan for industrial growth and lag in flexibility and transmission capacity. The document recommends that the federal government support interprovincial coordination, provide targeted funding for grid expansion, ensure a stable Clean Electricity Regulation, and prioritize grid flexibility to maintain industrial competitiveness.

The document outlines a benchmarking framework used to assess how jurisdictions attract investment in wind, solar, and battery projects. It defines six metrics: energy planning, flexibility planning, transmission planning, electricity procurement, industrial rate modernization, and climate policy certainty. The report provides the specific data sources, scoring rubrics, and calculation methods used to evaluate Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, New South Wales, Washington, and Texas.

The report argues that meeting U.S. electricity demand growth through 2030 with a clean energy portfolio is more affordable and reliable than a fossil-fuel-heavy approach. Modeling shows that a clean energy scenario could save consumers $5.1 billion annually by 2030 and significantly reduce risks associated with volatile fuel prices and extreme weather. The analysis emphasizes the role of solar, wind, battery storage, and demand-side flexibility in reducing system costs and carbon emissions while maintaining grid resilience.

The policy brief proposes ten strategic principles for governments to unlock business investment in clean electrification. These include setting clear targets, reforming financial incentives to remove fossil fuel subsidies, modernizing electricity grids, and streamlining permitting processes. The document emphasizes that coordinated international signals and integrated industrial strategies are necessary to reduce policy uncertainty and overcome barriers such as high upfront costs and skilled labor shortages, aiming for electricity to account for approximately 35% of global final energy use by 2035.

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are reaching scales that rival traditional power plants, with some programs exceeding 1 GW. Despite this, the document finds that utilities often fail to properly model VPPs in integrated resource plans (IRPs) and distribution system plans (DSPs), frequently treating them as fixed load adjustments rather than selectable resources. This planning gap leads to an underestimation of VPP value and a risk of redundant infrastructure investment. The author recommends that regulators and utilities develop detailed resource attributes for VPPs, allow for their growth in models, and evaluate their benefits across both bulk power and distribution systems.

The report analyzes the potential demand response to an EU ETS scope expansion for extra-EEA flights. It finds that demand effects are generally small at current price levels, particularly for high-emitting segments such as long-haul flights, business travel, and private aviation, which exhibit low price elasticity. The study highlights that cost pass-through rates are higher in competitive markets and at uncongested airports. Non-price factors, including value of time, airline loyalty, and airport attractiveness, are identified as primary drivers of the observed differences in price sensitivity across market segments.

The document examines the surge in data center demand in California, driven by generative AI, and warns that without new statewide policies, this growth could increase electricity costs for ratepayers, delay the clean energy transition, and threaten grid reliability. It highlights the risks of fossil-fueled backup generators on local air quality and recommends that data centers pay for their own clean energy generation and grid connection costs.

China is shifting its power system flexibility from coal retrofits to clean alternatives like battery energy storage. While coal retrofits are nearing exhaustion by 2027, the document argues that market reforms and updated dispatch practices are essential to prevent a reliance on new coal capacity and to meet 2030 emission goals.

To align with a 1.5°C pathway, the EU must increase wind and solar generation by a factor of 2 to 2.5 by 2030, reaching 1,618–1,861 TWh. This requires adding nearly 700 GW of new capacity (580 GW solar, 120 GW wind) by 2030. While current wind rollout is broadly consistent with these benchmarks, solar deployment is lagging, with a projected capacity gap of almost 160 GW by 2030. The report argues that fossil fuels must exit the EU power sector by 2035, with wind and solar providing 86% of electricity generation by 2050.

The report identifies key pillars for integrating non-conventional renewable energy (NCRE) in Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasizing the need for long-term state policies, proactive system planning, and updated regulatory frameworks. It highlights successful models in Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil, while contrasting these with challenges in Colombia, particularly regarding the lack of multi-party political consensus and coordination between generation and transmission planning.

The report highlights a trend of massive infrastructure spending by both electric and gas utilities in the U.S., which is driving up consumer energy bills. While the electric sector has a 'full toolbox' of regulatory and technical solutions to manage costs, the author contends that gas utility solutions are 'more nascent and uncharted.' The document proposes the use of a gas system analysis (GSA) to provide the foundational technical information necessary for decision-makers to avoid investing in redundant or irrelevant long-lived assets.

The Integrated Net Present Value (iNPV) framework addresses the failure of traditional cost-benefit analyses to account for the full value of process modernization in US light manufacturing. Developed by RMI and Schneider Electric, the framework provides a method for measuring and monetizing value streams across categories such as operational flexibility, risk mitigation, and market differentiation to improve investment decision-making for decarbonization.

The report critiques the 'firm fixation' approach where utilities meet surging data center demand by adding gas plants or refurbishing coal units. It identifies six defining features of data centers—agency, clustering, consumption profiles, flexibility, backup requirements, and modularity—that make them unsuitable for simple one-to-one matching with firm power plants. Instead, the author advocates for a 'system of systems' approach combining clean energy portfolios, battery storage, and demand-side flexibility. Key recommendations for policymakers include using the interconnection process as leverage to ensure cost causation and exploring demand-side resources, such as sponsoring household energy upgrades, to free up grid capacity.

ASEAN requires between $4 billion and $10.7 billion in smart grid investments to support its energy transition, depending on the chosen ambition level. The report outlines three investment pathways based on international benchmarks: a low-level distribution-focused approach ($4 billion), a medium-level renewable growth approach ($6.7 billion), and a high-level regional integration approach ($10.7 billion). While Singapore serves as a governance and technical model with its Grid 2.0 strategy and Digital Twin, most ASEAN nations will require a mix of blended finance, green bonds, and regulatory reforms to fund these upgrades, with the largest investment needs concentrated in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The report highlights the critical role of grid reliability and 'smart grids' in sustaining ASEAN's economic growth and clean energy transition. While the region has seen improvements in outage duration and frequency, challenges remain regarding transmission capacity and the integration of solar and wind power. The document warns that failure to invest in digital intelligence and infrastructure could lead to nearly $2.3 billion in annual economic losses by 2040.

The report argues that smart grids are essential for ASEAN to integrate rapidly growing solar and wind capacity while supporting industrial growth. It estimates that an investment of $4 billion to $10.7 billion is needed to modernize power systems, which could potentially unlock $2.3 billion in annual economic value by 2040 and create between 243,000 and 649,000 jobs. The document highlights the need for regional cooperation to harmonize grid codes and mobilize green finance to overcome current fragmented standards and financing gaps.

Thailand's economic strategy to become a regional hub for electric vehicles (EVs) and data centres requires a rapid transition to clean energy to attract foreign investment and meet international low-carbon standards. The energy sector, which accounted for 69% of total emissions in 2019, is central to Thailand's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30-40% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Projections indicate that EVs could account for 20% of total electricity demand by 2037, while data centre demand is expected to grow at an 8% CAGR from 2025 to 2027, potentially adding 10 TWh by 2037. To support this, the Thai government has introduced a direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) pilot project specifically for data centres of at least 50 MW, allowing them to bypass the single-buyer system and purchase renewable energy directly.

Chile faces significant renewable energy curtailment due to limited transmission and storage capacity, with 5,642 GWh of solar and wind energy curtailed in 2024. The report recommends a National Curtailment Reduction Plan, the mass installation of Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) systems, minimum storage requirements for new projects in congested areas, and the creation of a formal demand response market. It also suggests strengthening electricity exchange markets with Argentina and Peru to improve system flexibility.