Ambrose and Kim Awarded $500,000 Sloan Grant

Public Administration assistant professors Graham Ambrose (Principal Investigator), and Serena Kim (Co-Principal Investigator), in the School of International and Public Affairs at NC State, have been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Energy System Interactions program for their project, “Collaborative Approaches to Electrification, Load Growth, and Demand Management in Rural Electric Co-ops.” 

Many rural communities are seeing rapid growth in electricity use as data centers, new manufacturing facilities and expanding neighborhoods move into areas that previously had slow or stable demand. These changes bring valuable economic opportunities, but they also place new pressures on co-ops that must manage higher energy costs, limited infrastructure capacity, and community concerns about water use, noise, and local housing availability. 

The research team examines how co-ops and local communities can navigate these emerging demands and the growing operational pressures while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. This three-year project aims to achieve four objectives: 

• Identify where electricity demand is increasing in co-op service areas and understand the local factors such as population shifts or new industries that influence these trends.
• Document the practical strategies co-ops are using to manage rising demand including infrastructure upgrades, new programs, and updated rate options for members.
• Understand how co-ops decide which strategies to use by looking at the priorities, preferences, and constraints that guide decision-making across the co-op system. 
• Examine governance and coordination approaches that improve planning and local decision-making in response to changing electricity needs and community demands.

Ambrose and Kim will co-lead the research team in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s associate professor Gabriel Chan and researcher Matt Grimley, and with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), represented by Lakin Garth, Senior Director of Grid Strategies. SEPA’s involvement brings essential industry expertise and a national network of utilities, technology providers, and policymakers, enabling the research team to engage practitioners directly, understand co-op needs, and produce findings that are practical and scalable across rural communities.

The project advances CHASS’s strategic priority to shape public dialogue and support solutions that strengthen community resilience. The project deepens understanding of how collaborative governance can drive innovation in public service systems. Drawing on insights from public administration and policy, the research team is working with utility staff, community partners, state and national organizations, and academic experts to identify practical strategies for managing electricity load growth in rural areas while maintaining affordability and sustainability.

The Climate and Sustainability Academy (CaSA) is a key partner in advancing this project, contributing its campuswide expertise in climate resilience and sustainability. Christopher Galik, Deputy Executive Director of CaSA and professor of public administration, will help align the project with broader university priorities. As a university connector and amplifier, CaSA will support student engagement and coordinate experiential learning opportunities, and it sees strong potential to apply the project’s findings to NC State’s own planning for load growth and demand response.

Founded in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. the Sloan foundation is a not-for-profit grantmaking institution that supports high quality, impartial scientific research and fosters a robust, diverse, scientific workforce. The foundation’s Energy and Environment program aims to shape the direction of energy systems decarbonization research by examining a wide range of questions through collaborative and interdisciplinary scholarship across the social and natural sciences.