Research and reporting by Christoph Totter, founder of CT Acquisitions, first published in his LinkedIn newsletter The LMM Deal Sheet. Read his full piece here.
Christoph Totter put the scale of the American grid build into one headline this week. Investor-owned utilities will spend about $1.1 trillion on the grid over five years, and 10,833 contractors will split the work of building it.
That is a jobs story. Every dollar in a utility capital plan ends up as a crew on a pole, a foreman on a substation pad and an apprentice learning the trade. Totter, who advises owners of founder-led contracting businesses, did the work of pulling the numbers together. Here is what he found, and what it means for the people who do the work.
The Build
The Edison Electric Institute projects about $1.1 trillion of capital investment by investor-owned electric utilities from 2025 to 2029, Totter reports. Over the previous five years, through 2024, those same companies invested about $765 billion.
The annual figures tell the same story. Per EEI, investor-owned utility capital spending reached about $207.9 billion in 2025, up from $139.8 billion in 2020. That is an increase of nearly 50% in five years. Distribution is the largest category, followed by generation, transmission and gas infrastructure.
The forecasts keep rising. S&P Global Market Intelligence puts the 2026 to 2030 figure near $1.3 trillion, according to Totter's piece.
Totter lays out four drivers. Data centers come first: IBISWorld reports that U.S. data centers used about 183 terawatt hours of electricity in 2024, more than 4% of national consumption, and large new loads need new transmission, substations and distribution capacity. Load growth has returned after years of flat demand. Utilities are hardening lines and substations against storms. And much of the grid was built decades ago and is due for replacement.
Each of those drivers is a work order.
Who Does the Work
IBISWorld puts the U.S. transmission line construction industry at $125.5 billion in 2026, spread across 10,833 businesses, Totter reports. The number of businesses grew 3.3% in the past year and has grown about 4.3% a year since 2021. IBISWorld names Quanta Services as the largest company and describes market concentration as low.
Beyond Quanta and a handful of large national players, Totter writes, the work is done by thousands of regional line contractors, substation builders, utility services firms and electrical contractors. Those are local employers. They hire in the towns where they are based, and they send crews wherever the utility plan calls for them.
His summary of the market is simple: a trillion dollar spending plan on one side and a fragmented contractor base on the other.
Crews Are the Scarce Asset
The sharpest line in Totter's piece is about people. "Crews are the scarce asset," he writes. Qualified linemen, foremen and substation technicians are hard to hire, and buying a contractor with tenured crews is often faster than building one.
Federal labor data backs that up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 131,900 electrical power line installers and repairers in 2025. Their median pay was $95,320 in May 2025, close to double the $50,980 median for all occupations. BLS projects the occupation to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, adding 13,600 jobs, with about 10,900 openings a year on average across the decade.
The entry point is open. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry level education, followed by long term on the job training. Apprenticeships are common.
Put the two sets of numbers side by side. A capital plan that keeps growing, and a trade that is adding jobs and opening about 10,900 seats a year. That is a career path a high school graduate can walk into.
The Market Is Paying for Crews
Buyers have noticed. Totter tracks a run of large deals for electrical and utility infrastructure contractors:
- Dycom Industries agreed to acquire Power Solutions, a Mid-Atlantic electrical contractor serving data centers, for $1.95 billion. The deal closed in December 2025.
- Sterling Infrastructure paid $505 million upfront for CEC Facilities Group, an electrical and mechanical specialty contractor, in 2025.
- MasTec agreed in 2026 to pay $1.65 billion for The Superior Group, an electrical contractor focused on critical infrastructure.
- Private equity backed platforms, including MPE Partners' Delphi Infrastructure Group and Calera Capital's Thayer Infrastructure Services, have been adding contractors that serve electric, gas, telecom and renewable energy utilities.
Mergermarket reports that electrical contractor deal activity in North America hit a record number of deals in the first quarter of 2026, according to Totter.
What are buyers looking for? Totter's list reads like a workforce checklist. Multiyear master service agreements with utilities. Tenured crews and a training pipeline, especially linemen and foremen. A strong safety record and a clean OSHA history. Bonding capacity for larger utility work. Storm response capability. And a team that runs the business without depending on the founder.
What It Means
Utility capital plans are set years ahead. That gives contractors visibility that new construction rarely offers, Totter writes, and long term master service agreements turn project work into steady work.
For a contractor, that means hiring with confidence. For a young worker, it means a trade with a long runway and pay well above the national median. For the towns where these firms are based, it means payroll that stays put.
The utilities are writing the plans. Thousands of contractors are staffing up to build them. The people on those crews are the ones who will turn $1.1 trillion into wire, steel and substations.
Our thanks to Christoph Totter for the research. Follow Christoph Totter on LinkedIn, subscribe to The LMM Deal Sheet, and read his original piece for the full deal analysis.
Sources
- Christoph Totter, "US Utilities Will Spend $1.1 Trillion on the Grid in the Next 5 Years. 10,833 Contractors Split the Work of Building It.," The LMM Deal Sheet on LinkedIn, October 27, 2026. Totter's piece draws on the Edison Electric Institute, S&P Global Market Intelligence, IBISWorld, Mergermarket and company deal announcements.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Electrical Power Line Installers and Repairers," Occupational Outlook Handbook, accessed October 28, 2026.
Reliable power. Affordable power. Great jobs.
Tips and corrections: amos.snead@positivecurrent.com
Positive Current
