Why the Grid Spending Boom Runs on High-Strength Structural Steel Plate
The story of the decade in energy might not be generation at all. It might be wires, towers, and substations. The grid that moves electricity from where it is made to where it is used is being rebuilt at a scale not seen in generations, and steel is at the center of it. Most of that steel is unglamorous high-strength structural plate, the kind that holds up transmission towers and substation structures without ever drawing attention to itself. A once-in-a-generation grid buildout The numbers are staggering. J.P. Morgan points to $5.8 trillion of cumulative grid investment forecast globally between 2026 and 2035, with the United States alone expected to spend on the order of a trillion dollars over the coming decade. Two forces are driving it. Aging infrastructure built decades…









