The global race for artificial intelligence and the inability of the U.S. electricity sector to keep pace have state policymakers scratching their heads. Some respond by restricting data centers’ use of local grids; others put existing customers and taxpayers on the hook for investments to accommodate the new demand. The electricity sector is in a state of crisis.

New Hampshire recently approved an elegant solution: Let anyone build. In August Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed HB 672, which minimizes red tape for electricity providers that don’t connect to the existing grid, thus bringing more competition, speed and innovation to the state. In the spirit of reducing bureaucracy, the bill itself fits neatly on one page.

Off-grid electricity providers in New Hampshire will no longer be subject to public-utility regulation. This means they are free to develop projects, operate or enter into commercial agreements without going hat in hand to state bureaucrats. “New Hampshire welcomes entrepreneurship and innovation in energy,” says state Rep. Michael Vose, who sponsored HB 672. Recent analysis suggests regulatory hurdles can add anywhere from one to five years to projects.

Welcoming new suppliers means inviting more people with ideas for tackling electricity challenges. Picture a local utility generating power via gas, solar or even a small modular nuclear reactor and delivering it directly to customers, including data centers and other industrial facilities. New suppliers can start projects unencumbered by decades of heavily regulated business practices. Off-grid suppliers can consider innovation in all aspects of the business, beyond the usual choice of generation types.

The value of such innovations could be great. Consider the example of FedEx. Its revolutionary breakthrough wasn’t about new types of planes or trucks but the novel ways the company used those assets. To improve reliability and meet customers’ needs, New Hampshire’s off-grid electricity suppliers will find innovative ways of designing transmission and distribution assets.

For more than a century, government has regulated innovation in the electricity industry with a heavy hand. But visionaries like Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, not regulators and technocrats, made the electricity sector great. A century ago, we mistakenly traded the ability of competitive businesses to tinker and experiment for the presumed logic and efficiency of monopoly utilities. Now New Hampshire has reversed that.

If you build the legal structure for competition, who will show up to become a new provider? Time will tell, but the candidates are many. Some electricity project developers focus on generation, some on new transmission, some on microgrids. All can move from narrow specialization to building entirely new off-grid systems.

Owners of regulated utilities could also step forward to become new providers. They are often frustrated by the pace and direction of regulatory proceedings. Many will want new business opportunities. No one knows the electricity supply business like existing utilities.

For years, leaders of the fast-growing data-center industry have expressed frustration with the slow expansion in the electricity sector. New Hampshire deserves credit for recognizing that the status quo wasn’t cutting it. HB 672 could re-create in the Granite State the fierce competition from the early decades of the electricity sector, when the growth and innovation were extremely fast.