US utilities plan a record 24 gigawatts of new battery storage for 2026. More battery storage is already waiting to connect to the power grid than the country plans to add in any single year.

How long it takes to connect a new battery to the power grid

How long does it take to connect a new battery to the power grid. In 2026, developers plan to add 24 gigawatts of new battery storage to the United States power grid, according to the Energy Information Administration, the federal agency that tracks power plants nationwide. That is up from 15 gigawatts added in 2025, a 60% increase the agency states directly. A gigawatt equals 1,000 megawatts, big enough to measure whole power plants.

Before a battery can send power into the grid, a regional grid operator studies it first, to confirm it will not overload wires already carrying power to homes and businesses, a step called interconnection. The Department of Energy states, in a draft national study still under public comment, that 1,030 gigawatts of battery storage were waiting in interconnection queues nationwide as of 2024, alongside 1,480 gigawatts of solar and wind. That queue total is more than 40 times the 24 gigawatts developers plan to add in 2026 alone, a comparison this site calculated by dividing the 2 government figures, not one either source states directly.

Connecting a battery also needs physical room at a high voltage substation, a facility that raises or lowers electricity voltage so it can move safely between local wires and the long distance lines that carry power across states. Adding up the totals the department reports for every grid region gives at least 45,900 high voltage substations nationwide, a count this site calculated itself, not including Alaska and Hawaii, which the study leaves out for lack of data.

A record pace of battery storage builds

Battery storage already operating in the United States reached 43.6 gigawatts by the end of 2025, then grew by another 8.3 gigawatts in the first 6 months of 2026 alone, reaching nearly 52 gigawatts by mid 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration. The agency counts an average 70% growth rate a year for battery storage capacity over the last 3 years, among the fastest growing parts of the power grid. Planners have another 54 gigawatts of additions in view through 2028, split as 14 gigawatts for the rest of 2026, 26 gigawatts in 2027 and 14 gigawatts in 2028.

PJM speeds up the study, but not always the build

PJM Interconnection, which runs a large share of the mid Atlantic and Midwest power grid, redesigned its interconnection process this year to shorten the wait. The operator states its reformed process now targets a decision within 1 to 2 years, instead of the open ended queue it replaced. In the first cycle under the new rules, PJM qualified 715 new generation projects for study, totaling 201.5 gigawatts of capacity. Battery storage led every other technology by project count, 314 of the 715 projects and 60.0 gigawatts of capacity, ahead of natural gas, nuclear and solar.

PJM is encouraged at the number and quality of applications that are proceeding through the study process to help address the long-term shortage of electricity supply that we are facing.

Jason Connell, Vice President of Planning at PJM Interconnection, the operator of the mid Atlantic regional power grid, speaking on the first cycle of the reformed interconnection process. Source 4.

A faster study does not guarantee a faster build. PJM states it has processed more than 300 gigawatts of projects through interconnection study since 2020, of which just over 100 gigawatts reached a signed agreement. PJM currently has 51 gigawatts of signed generation that still is not built, held up mostly by state permitting rules and supply chains, not by how PJM studies projects.