Billions in Benefits: A Path for Expanding Transmission Between MISO and PJM

Consumers are paying billions of dollars a year due to transmission constraints between the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern grid regions, and those costs are expected to increase with decarbonization and electrification efforts.

The report shows how increased interregional transmission between the PJM Interconnection (PJM) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) can save consumers more than $15 billion by reducing the need for power plant capacity, as well as ongoing savings that can exceed $1 billion per year by allowing more affordable power to flow across a broader geographical area. The congested seam between the regions also harms reliability by limiting the ability to import power, particularly during events like Winter Storms Elliott and Uri that disrupted electricity supply and demand in one region but not the other.

The report outlines various steps the grid operators, states, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and other stakeholders can take to develop more workable mechanisms for planning and paying for interregional transmission.