Power companies say they're going to spend more, which means we are going to pay more.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Benishore.

Power utilities plan to spend $1.4 trillion with a T dollars over the next five years on capital projects.

That is according to a new report by the energy non-profit power lines, and that is a 21% increase over what utilities were planning just a year ago.

Marketplaces, Henry Ep, reports that spending could drive up household utility bills.

The power grid in the U.S. desperately needs updates, so that's where a lot of that $1.4 trillion in planned capital spending is going,

says Charles Huah at the nonprofit power lines. A significant amount of that will be necessary just to

make sure that the lights stay on as our grid becomes increasingly unreliable and the infrastructure

is getting old. On top of that, many utilities are planning to add more power generation to keep up with

growing electricity demand. And utilities can pass the costs of all these projects onto their

customers. But first, they need permission from state regulators, often called public utility

commissions. The decisions that get made by the state

public utilities commissions over the next five years will make or break what actually happens to

people's utility bills. Because those commissions will decide just how much of a return beyond

the cost of a project companies can ask for. Annie Levinson Falk is head of the

Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota, which advocates for consumers before that state's public

utility commission. Utility companies are entitled to a fair return on their investments, and

investors do get to make a profit on that, but it needs to be reasonable and it needs to be

balanced with affordability for customers. In many cases, Levinson Falk says utilities can opt for less

expensive ways to improve the grid, which can save ratepayers money. I'm Henry App for Marketplace.

The largest U.S. banks, we're talking J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Golden Sacks,

reportedly spent a record

...