IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v47y2026i2p51-79.html

Interregional Electricity Transmission in the United States: Realized Savings and Opportunities for Increased Value, 2014 to 2023

Author

Listed:
  • Leila Safavi
  • Julie Mulvaney Kemp
  • Will Gorman
  • Dev Millstein
  • Ryan Wiser

Abstract

Interregional electricity trade in the United States reduces total energy costs, but falls short of maximizing the economic potential of existing transmission infrastructure. This analysis of thirty-two U.S. electricity system interfaces crossing grid or market seams finds an average achieved cost savings of at least $1,226 million per year. This positive impact is offset by an average annual cost of uneconomic interchange of $551 million. Additional value of at least $238 million per year could be enabled by increasing utilization. Notably, uneconomic flows and low utilization rates can persist even when the price spread between regions is large. These conclusions are derived from historical (2014–2023) data on the magnitude and direction of interregional price spreads, the magnitude and direction of net energy transfers, and how these variables coincide, but do not account for all system constraints. These findings motivate the development and deployment of solutions that improve interregional transmission operations, in parallel with robust transmission infrastructure planning. JEL Classification: Q40 Energy: General

Suggested Citation

  • Leila Safavi & Julie Mulvaney Kemp & Will Gorman & Dev Millstein & Ryan Wiser, 2026. "Interregional Electricity Transmission in the United States: Realized Savings and Opportunities for Increased Value, 2014 to 2023," The Energy Journal, , vol. 47(2), pages 51-79, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:47:y:2026:i:2:p:51-79
    DOI: 10.1177/01956574251399644
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01956574251399644
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/01956574251399644?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:47:y:2026:i:2:p:51-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.