🇺🇸United States

Excessive Transmission Congestion Costs from Inadequate Capacity

3 verified sources

Definition

Transmission congestion in US RTOs forces reliance on higher-cost generation when low-cost power cannot flow due to grid limits, resulting in elevated real-time energy payments. Costs rose 100% from 2020 to 2021, indicating systemic inefficiency in congestion management. These recurring costs are passed to consumers via higher electricity prices.

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: $ billions annually across US RTOs (e.g., 5% increase 2019-2020, 100% increase 2020-2021)
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Root Cause: Insufficient transmission capacity and suboptimal pricing mechanisms failing to signal timely grid expansions

Why This Matters

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Electric Power Transmission, Control, and Distribution.

Affected Stakeholders

Transmission System Operators (ISOs/RTOS), Grid Planners, Utility Executives

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$1-10M annually per renewable developer (estimated 2-5% of revenue lost to settlement disputes and inefficient curtailment) • $1-10M annually renewable-wide (estimated 1-5% revenue loss from contested curtailment charges and regulatory penalties) • $1-2B annually (estimated 5-10% of renewable generation blocked during peak periods in congested regions)

Unlock to reveal

Current Workarounds

Analyst manually extracts data from 2-4 RTO portals; consolidates in Excel; identifies missing/disputed charges via spot checks; negotiates corrections via email • Coordinator manually monitors SCADA alarms and RTO alerts; initiates manual reconfigurations via phone/email coordination; tracks response via log sheets; manual documentation of incident • Coordinator manually reviews outage calendar in Excel; estimates congestion impact via tribal knowledge or manual load flow study; coordinates delays/reschedules via email; documents via spreadsheet

Unlock to reveal

Get Solutions for This Problem

Full report with actionable solutions

$99$39
  • Solutions for this specific pain
  • Solutions for all 15 industry pains
  • Where to find first clients
  • Pricing & launch costs
Get Solutions Report

Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Grid Capacity Underutilization Due to Persistent Congestion

$100-280 million annual savings potential from relief (implying equivalent losses prior)

Request Deep Analysis

🇺🇸 Be first to access this market's intelligence