Transmission Study Puts $15.3 Billion on 13 Eastern Projects, PJM Collecting Over Half
A study released Tuesday (2026-09-01) shows PJM capturing over half the net value from proposed Eastern grid upgrades, as MISO tightens large-load interconnection rules.
A study released Tuesday (2026-09-01) put a specific value on long-debated Eastern grid expansion: 13 high-value inter- and intraregional transmission projects could generate up to $15.3 billion in net system value through 2050, according to analysis covering the full Eastern Interconnection footprint.5
PJM captures the bulk of that figure. Under the base demand unconstrained scenario, the study calculated $6.7 billion in benefits for PJM over 40 years, with the full Eastern Interconnection producing $12.4 billion in net present value at a 1.77 benefit-to-cost ratio. SPP and MISO South follow at $1.9 billion, the Southeast at $851 million and the Northeast at $393 million.5
The regional skew has direct market implications. PJM Western Hub spot power settled at $119.29 per megawatt-hour on Friday (2026-09-04). MISO Indiana Hub printed $150.33/MWh in the same Friday (2026-09-04) session, a spread that reflects localized congestion and the transmission constraints the study's projects are designed to reduce.5
The study arrives as generation construction outpaces transmission expansion. Sixty-seven gigawatts are currently being built in the United States: 27 GW of solar, 17 GW of battery storage, 15 GW of wind and 9 GW of gas-fired capacity. Transmission to carry that output is not expanding at the same rate.5
MISO is already responding to the demand side of the same problem. On Friday (2026-08-28), the Midcontinent Independent System Operator proposed "interconnection reliability requirements" — a framework setting ramping and ride-through specifications that large loads must satisfy before connecting to the grid. The proposal is designed to improve MISO's visibility into how large loads, increasingly data centers, behave under stressed system conditions.4
Data center growth is the pressure behind both moves. Grid Strategies projects the US data center market will add between 65 GW and 90 GW of load by 2029. That volume, concentrated in a limited number of geographic clusters, would strain the transmission corridors the study's 13 projects are intended to harden.1
FERC has been advancing on both the supply and demand sides. The commission voted unanimously to issue show-cause orders to all six RTOs and ISOs, PJM and MISO among them, directing each to justify or rewrite large-load tariff structures under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act. FERC's February 2026 report to Congress separately transmitted NERC's recommendation for 35,000 MW of technically prudent transmission additions across 10 regions projected to face resource deficiencies by 2033.3,2
But the study's headline numbers require context. The $15.3 billion figure is the ceiling of an unconstrained scenario; actual project costs, siting litigation and regulatory delay will compress any realized value. Interregional transmission proposals in the US routinely survive the study phase and stall well before construction permits.5
The distribution of projected benefits creates a political obstacle of its own. With PJM claiming $6.7 billion against the Northeast's $393 million, cost allocation negotiations are all but guaranteed to resurface, and have derailed comparable proposals in the past. Northeastern utilities and ratepayers have limited incentive to underwrite transmission whose value concentrates primarily elsewhere.5
NERC's 35,000 MW transmission addition target, from FERC's February 2026 report to Congress, carries no delivery date. MISO's new interconnection reliability requirements, proposed on Friday (2026-08-28), are only entering stakeholder review. The study makes the economic case; a permitting timeline for any of the 13 projects is the number the analysis does not provide.2,4