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

Interregional Electricity Transmission in the United States: Realized Savings and Opportunities for Increased Value, 2014– 2023 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Interregional Electricity Transmission in the United States: Realized Savings and Opportunities for Increased Value, 2014– 2023 Leila Safavi, Julie Mulvaney Kemp, Will Gorman, Dev Millstein, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6414032/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version 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 32 U.S. electricity system interfaces crossing grid or market seams finds an average achieved cost savings of at least $1226 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 is left on the table due to under-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. These findings motivate the development and deployment of solutions that improve interregional transmission operations, in parallel with robust transmission infrastructure planning. Electricity Transmission Grid Seams Operational Efficiency Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6414032","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":440770422,"identity":"1dd09df6-5aea-4887-9d08-534135efe464","order_by":0,"name":"Leila Safavi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Leila","middleName":"","lastName":"Safavi","suffix":""},{"id":440770423,"identity":"6a6d9af7-3b0e-4e6a-bc36-d125800a1a3c","order_by":1,"name":"Julie Mulvaney 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reduces total energy costs, but falls short of \u0026nbsp;maximizing the economic potential of existing transmission infrastructure. This analysis of 32 \u0026nbsp;U.S. electricity system interfaces crossing grid or market seams finds an average achieved cost \u0026nbsp;savings of at least $1226 million per year. This positive impact is offset by an average annual cost \u0026nbsp;of uneconomic interchange of $551 million. Additional value of at least $238 million per year \u0026nbsp;is left on the table due to under-utilization. Notably, uneconomic flows and low utilization rates \u0026nbsp;can persist even when the price spread between regions is large. These conclusions are derived \u0026nbsp;from historical (2014-2023) data on the magnitude and direction of interregional price spreads, the \u0026nbsp;magnitude and direction of net energy transfers, and how these variables coincide. These findings \u0026nbsp;motivate the development and deployment of solutions that improve interregional transmission \u0026nbsp;operations, in parallel with robust transmission infrastructure planning.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Interregional Electricity Transmission in the United States: Realized Savings and Opportunities for Increased Value, 2014– 2023","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-11 03:34:08","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6414032/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"b3d6f282-c50e-4892-aaa3-c08208a28543","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 11th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-04-11T03:34:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-11 03:34:08","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6414032","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6414032","identity":"rs-6414032","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}