But America has been coming up extremely short, averaging only 536 new transmission miles per year from 2020 and 2024, and less than 1,000 miles annually over the past decade. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission data shows 2025 tracking even lower.
Before public utilities commissions (PUCs) approve slow, billion-dollar power line buildouts, which also results in rate increases for customers, many are asking the same question:
What are utilities doing to optimize the existing infrastructure customers already paid for first?
Software-based grid enhancing technologies (GETs) are America’s fastest path to maximized infrastructure, short term capacity gains, reduced congestion, and lower power bills. They offer a win-win solution for utilities to justify investing in more infrastructure while freeing up access to more energy at a lower cost to customers in the interim.
Record spending meets record load growth
Utilities are proposing record investments in transmission and distribution (T&D) with multibillion-dollar rate increase requests, driven by soaring demand from data centers, AI, and electrification. In fact, T&D is now the fastest-growing part of the rate base for many utilities, outpacing investments in new power generation.
Electricity prices have already risen by nearly 40% since 2021, and these new requests will only continue to increase power bills. This strain puts PUCs in a difficult position – they are responsible for balancing reliability, economic development, and affordability, and often, those goals conflict.
The ratepayer reality in Texas
In ERCOT regions, transmission costs have more than doubled, from $1.5 billion in 2010 to over $5 billion in 2024 and could surpass $12 billion per year by 2033. Texans are seeing the impacts show up in their power bills, with the average ERCOT customer paying nearly 60% more in transmission charges in 2024 than in 2010.
Those customers are expecting to see another increase of at least $100 more per household year, as the PUC of Texas and ERCOT recently approved $33 billion in new long-distance transmission lines to help address rising demand.
Optimizing the grid offsets investment costs
Electricity bills are composed of energy costs and grid costs. Grid investments have to increase because building new lines is necessary to meet soaring demand. But energy costs don’t need to go up in the same way, especially if lowest-cost generators can access the market and keep energy prices down.
An immediate way to achieve that is with sensorless dynamic line rating (DLR), a software-only Grid Enhancing Technology (GET) that adds grid capacity from existing transmission lines and reduces congestion. Maximizing power lines in this way allows utilities to justify rate increases to build more lines, while also keeping power bills in check.
Many states already require GETs assessments
Building new transmission lines takes about ten years of permitting and construction to complete. Power demand is growing faster than that, which is why legislators and regulators have recently taken more interest in non-wires solutions - they're faster to implement.
While many states now require utilities to evaluate GETs in long-term transmission planning, the irony is these tools do not materially reduce the amount of investments needed into power lines. Instead, GETs are a tool for reducing congestion in the near term. By helping power markets operate more efficiently in the short term, GETs keep power bills down while we wait for new infrastructure. They help to partially offset the rise in bills due to building new lines.
This approach of optimizing existing assets before building new lines is also the approach taken in Europe in the upcoming Grids Package. While some countries, such as Germany, have been following this principle already for years, the Grids Package will require all European countries to assess non-wires alternatives as the first step, helping to keep energy costs under control.
Transmission owners need to prioritize and accelerate the deployment of software-based GETs to bring more capacity online sooner, and help balance affordability for ratepayers with increasing T&D investments.
Software-based GETs are a bridge to new lines
Transmission expansion is necessary, and PUCs are pro-growth. They are responsible for safeguarding public investment, and utilities and customers both benefit when existing assets are fully utilized.
Ultimately, software-based GETs are the tools needed for squeezing the most out of our grid – today. They will help manage costs and maintain reliability while the next generation of infrastructure is built.