A recent report about West Virginia’s electric system should jolt anyone to alarm. That is if they care about West Virginia’s economy.

The state just earned a D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers in our state, and the electric grid is the big red flag.

Business leaders, policymakers, and regulators, the takeaway is simple: grid reliability is now a failing economic issue. Manufacturing growth, high-tech business, and even basic community resilience depend on infrastructure isn’t making the grade, failing to handle modern loads and extreme weather. And that is from civil engineering professionals in the state.

West Virginia’s 25,000 miles of distribution lines and 6,000 miles of transmission are aging fast, and nearly 40% of key components are past their intended service life. Even after $1 billion in upgrades since 2012, our outages are still longer and more frequent than the national average, especially in rural communities.

The report highlights overloaded corridors, outdated substations, and limited redundancy. Some lines are already near capacity while electricity demand continues to grow. New technologies are moving faster than the system that must support them.

The report also makes clear that West Virginia has real energy strengths, but only if we act. Upgrading lines, rebuilding substations, adding storage, deploying microgrids, and strengthening cybersecurity are not optional improvements. They are necessities.

This is not about a specific failure. It is about maintenance and timing. A small roof leak is more affordable when repaired in a timely fashion. Ignore it and the repair costs will certainly multiply. The electric grid works the same way. Planning now, investing smartly and implementing improvements will cost far less if done without delays. A grade of D+ is an early warning. Simply stated, the prudent move is to act before failure occurs.