NETA Corporate Alliance Partners (CAPs) are industry-leading companies that have joined forces with NETA to work together toward a common goal: improving quality, safety, and electrical system reliability.
In this continuing series highlighting NETA’s CAPs, the 2026 NETA World Corporate Alliance Spotlight features perspectives from leaders across the electrical power industry. These “View from the Bridge” interviews explore the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of electrical testing and maintenance.
For this issue, we spoke with representatives from Group CBS, one of North America’s largest providers of electrical equipment, engineering, field services, and life-extension solutions. Drawing on expertise across its family of companies, Group CBS discusses how increasing electrical demand, aging infrastructure, and the rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers are reshaping the industry.
NW: What important changes are you seeing in your industry segment?
Camber: The biggest shift we’re seeing is the return of meaningful electrical load growth across the North American power grid after nearly a decade of relatively flat demand.
Today’s growth is being fueled by transportation electrification, electric heating, industrial electrification, and, perhaps most significantly, the rapid expansion of AI data centers. At the same time, aging electrical infrastructure, lengthy interconnection queues, and increasing grid congestion are slowing the pace of modernization. Traditional resource planning simply wasn’t designed for today’s combination of accelerating demand and infrastructure constraints.
As one of the nation’s largest suppliers of both new and legacy electrical equipment, along with nationwide field service capabilities, Group CBS is uniquely positioned to help customers address these challenges while maintaining reliability during a period of unprecedented change.
NW: What factors are driving these changes?
Camber: Demand-side electrification is the primary driver. More electric vehicles, expanded industrial electrification, increased electric heating, and rapidly growing computing requirements are placing new demands on the grid simultaneously. AI data centers, in particular, have become one of the largest contributors to projected load growth.
Meanwhile, decades of underinvestment in electrical infrastructure are colliding with these new demands. Utilities are responding with significant capital investment programs while balancing customer affordability and increasingly complex supply chains.
One advantage for Group CBS is its extensive inventory of legacy electrical equipment spanning multiple decades. That inventory allows customers to restore service without undertaking expensive redesigns or complete equipment replacements. At the same time, the company’s in-house manufacturing capabilities enable modernization projects that increase system capacity while extending asset life.
Another significant driver is the increasing financial impact of downtime. For many industrial facilities, unplanned outages now average more than $250,000 per hour. As a result, real-time monitoring and proactive maintenance have evolved from optional investments into operational necessities.
NW: How is your organization responding to these changes?
Camber: Our strategy centers on what we call the Power of One—providing utilities and industrial customers with a single, trusted partner throughout the entire electrical power system lifecycle.
Rather than coordinating multiple vendors for engineering, testing, equipment procurement, safety solutions, and emergency response, customers can rely on a fully integrated organization that supports every phase of an electrical infrastructure project.
Group CBS continues to invest heavily in its nationwide network of NETA Accredited field service operations, engineering resources, and extensive inventory of new, surplus, and reconditioned equipment. Our nationwide service centers also provide life-extension, remanufacturing, and reconditioning capabilities that allow customers to restore legacy equipment while avoiding the cost of complete replacement.
Equally important is our ability to provide emergency response around the clock. With 24/7/365 restoration capabilities, customers can access rapid support wherever their critical assets are located.
Safety remains another major focus. As utilities and contractors perform increasing amounts of high-risk field work to support grid expansion, remote racking and switching technologies are becoming increasingly important for protecting personnel from arc flash hazards.
NW: How will these changes impact the overall electrical power industry?
Camber: Over the next several years, we expect the industry to be defined by the balance between urgency and affordability.
Utilities must expand capacity, modernize aging infrastructure, and improve reliability faster than ever before, all while navigating supply chain limitations, workforce shortages, and financial pressures. Those competing priorities will require thoughtful planning and trusted partnerships.
Automation will also continue to accelerate. As utilities deploy more intelligent monitoring and control technologies throughout their systems, investment in power distribution automation is expected to grow significantly over the remainder of the decade.
At the same time, modernization won’t always mean complete replacement. Life-extension programs, remanufacturing, engineering expertise, and field services will continue to play a critical role in helping utilities maximize existing assets while making strategic investments that create the greatest value.
NW: How do these changes affect the electrical testing industry?
Camber: Testing is becoming more important—not less.
As utilities seek to maximize the life of existing infrastructure, they need reliable, documented testing to support maintenance decisions and demonstrate equipment condition. Circuit breaker timing, vacuum interrupter testing, arc flash studies, acceptance testing, commissioning, and other diagnostic services have become essential tools for managing risk while maintaining system reliability.
We’re also seeing testing evolve from periodic events toward continuous asset management. Real-time monitoring of voltage, current, harmonics, power factor, and other operating parameters allows organizations to identify developing issues before they become failures. That shift raises expectations for the technicians and engineers responsible for interpreting data and making maintenance recommendations.
Finally, simple growth in electrical infrastructure will continue driving testing demand. Every new interconnection, distributed energy resource, substation expansion, or capital improvement project requires acceptance testing before it can be energized.
As the financial consequences of downtime continue to increase, NETA-certified technicians and licensed professional engineers are increasingly viewed as strategic partners rather than commodity service providers. Thorough testing remains one of the most cost-effective investments utilities and industrial facilities can make to improve reliability, reduce operational risk, and support the growing demands placed on today’s electrical power systems.