CO2EFFICIENT and the Rainey Center, October 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) development, data center growth, and new domestic manufacturing heighten the need for legislation to improve permitting, facilitate near term access to power and longer-term electric generation and transmission buildout, and improve grid oversight and electricity affordability. In the absence of durable federal reforms, states are meeting the moment by developing new legislation to meet the energy needs of the AI race and domestic manufacturing while working to keep customer electricity costs down. Policies that states have passed include innovative state energy policies to attract data center development, create programs that promote reliability and affordability, and develop options for non-traditional generation arrangements combined with pathways to connect to local or regional grids. T This memo explores the most notable state level trends and specific representative legislation to guide policymakers.

CO2EFFICIENT and the Rainey Center, October 2025

Both Congress and key federal agencies are advancing a suite of pragmatic, market oriented policies focused on two critical pillars: streamlining the permitting process to unlock private investment and establishing robust guardrails to ensure grid reliability. This memo provides an overview of the key legislative and administrative actions shaping this new landscape.

Jessie Buchsbaum and Jenya Kahn-Lang, Resources Magazine, October 2025

These five charts unpack the trends and cost drivers shaping today’s electricity prices—and what these trends mean for households and related policies.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, October 2025

This study analyzes the primary drivers of recent state-level trends in U.S. retail electricity prices. We summarize pricing trends, explore descriptive relationships, and employ regression models to quantify the influence of various factors. Although the recent national rise in retail prices has largely tracked inflation, state-level trends vary widely. We identify a number of factors that explain trends in subsets of states. 

Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Lab, October 2025

This map shows data center demand by county.

Severin Borenstein, Energy Institute at Haas, October 2025

The blog post argues that the surge in electricity demand from data centers—especially those built for AI workloads—can push up retail electric rates in the short term by straining generation capacity and triggering large grid investments. On the flip side, if managed well (via demand flexing and fair cost-allocation), this growth could help spread fixed grid costs more broadly and potentially lower per-kilowatt hour rates in the medium term.

AlphaStruxure, Schneider Electric, and Data Center Frontier, April 2025

 A new survey commissioned by AlphaStruxure, a leader in Energy as a Service (EaaS) infrastructure solutions, and Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, in partnership with Data Center Frontier, provides insights into the significant energy challenges faced by the data center sector. The survey of 149 American and Canadian data center executives was conducted between January – February 2025 and points to a growing "time to power" challenge that's leading the industry to look to alternative solutions to grid power.

Brattle Group, April 2023

This report was developed pursuant to Act 187, which was enacted in September 2020, and prepared for the Electricity Market Reform Measures Study Committee of the South Carolina General Assembly. The study examined the nature and size of potential benefits that could be achieved by market reforms in the electricity sector. 

Grid Strategies, December 2023

This report found that demand growth is now expected to spike by 38 gigawatts or 4.7%, compared to estimates last year that anticipated a 2.6 percent increase in power demand over the next five years.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory, February 2023

This report was developed pursuant to Assembly Concurrent Resolution 188, which the California State Assembly and Senate approved in August 2022, and prepared for the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). The report demonstrated that California’s goals for renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction can be achieved more quickly and with less cost to Californians through expanded regional cooperation. 

Advanced Energy Economy, July 2022

This study found that establishing a broad, West-wide organized electricity market known as a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) would create as many as 657,000 permanent, high-paying jobs in the West. The study also found that a Western RTO would diversify state economies and save ratepayers millions of dollars per year in energy costs. The 11 states studied in the report were Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The analysis found all 11 states could expect economic benefits from a West-wide RTO, driven by lower electricity prices for households and businesses, additional clean energy development across the region, and the expansion of existing, as well as attraction of new, businesses to the West.

World Resources Institute, March 2022

This paper discusses the evolving rules and policies of wholesale markets that can create barriers to local governments' achievement of an effective and rapid clean energy transition. The report reviews the current barriers associated with transmission, market rules, and stakeholder processes across these markets while considering how these barriers affect local government clean energy and decarbonization goals, and the role of effective engagement in addressing these barriers. 

Oregon Department of Energy, December 2021

The Oregon Department of Energy, in consultation with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, prepared the report for submission to the Oregon Legislature consistent with the requirements of Senate Bill 589 (2021). The report identified widespread agreement among stakeholders on the value of increased regional coordination and collaboration, but it also identified a need to delicately balance competing interests—across different types of utilities, state and federal entities, various states, and other interested stakeholders—in order to forge solutions that achieve the common objectives of stakeholders inside and outside of Oregon.

Colorado Public Utilities Commission, December 2021

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission conducted this study as part of the Colorado Transmission Coordination Act. The study found that enhanced market participation through greater regional coordination can reduce total annual costs for Colorado electric utilities by as much as 4 to 5 percent, while helping to accelerate the achievement of our state’s clean energy goals. The study also  demonstrated “full participation by the electric utilities in a (regional transmission organization) could deliver approximately $230 million annually” through sharing reserves, and operating costs and infrastructure investment savings. At the same time, this study also identified significant concerns with shifting core aspects of electric utility regulation (involving new generator interconnection, transmission expansion, and resource adequacy) from state control to regional processes due to significant governance issues.  

Clean Energy Buyers Institute, September 2021

The Primer compares key governance and decision-making elements across the seven Regional Transmission Organizations/Independent System Operators (RTOs/ISOs) in the U.S., highlighting the importance and impact to electricity customers. Elements are structured in a top-down approach, beginning with discussion on regulatory oversight and governing bodies, and ending with stakeholder participation and independent evaluation of RTOs. 

World Resources Institute, August 2021

This paper discusses energy buyers—including companies and cities—role in the clean energy transition. Moving forward, however, large energy buyers will need to go further and take additional actions to help create a zero-carbon electric grid by 2050. This paper discusses how “transformative procurement practices” can optimize how, when and where clean energy is deployed to help reduce long-term emissions. 

Energy Strategies, July 2021

The two-year study, titled, “Exploring Western Organized Market Configurations: A Western States’ Study of Coordinated Market Options to Advance State Energy Policies (the State Market Study)," compared a “business-as-usual” scenario to a series of theoretical “future case” electricity market structures. At the high end, the study found annual benefits of up to $2 billion from a western regional transmission organization (RTO) in 2030, although that finding does not include ongoing costs to operate an RTO. Eleven western states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming—provided representatives from both state energy offices and public utility commissions, for a lead team that guided the study. The States Market Study was funded through a DOE State Energy Program competitive award to the Utah Office of Energy Development, in partnership with Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. 

World Resources Institute, March 2021

This paper presents three main avenues for local governments to get involved in wholesale energy market issues concerning renewable energy: through public statements, at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) level, and at the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO)/Independent System Operator (ISO) level. In many cases, working collaboratively can help local governments overcome barriers like limited capacity, expertise or funding. 

Advanced Energy Buyers Group, January 2021

This report explains why organized competitive wholesale markets operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators (RTOs/ISOs) are foundational to many of the strategies that large energy buyers rely on to increase their use of advanced energy and meet their sustainability targets. Specifically, the report describes the massive market opportunity and explains why expanding these markets to new regions and improving the design and operation of existing RTOs/ISOs would create more opportunities for corporate advanced energy procurement.

Southwest Power Pool, December 2020

This study, prepared for the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), estimates the production cost benefits that would likely result from the creation of the Western Energy Imbalance Services (WEIS) Market and from extending the full SPP Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) market to include the WEIS footprint. The report found that the creation of the WEIS real-time imbalance market with coordinated real-time imbalance transactions across the direct current (DC) ties reduces adjusted production cost (APC) by $9 million/year for WEIS members and by $7.1 million/year for the current SPP members. The WEIS Market produces benefits by allowing for increased flows of low-cost power from the western part of the SPP footprint across the DC ties into the WECC. The report also found that the creation of the SPP West RTO creates benefits of $25 million/year for WEIS members and $24.2 million/year for current SPP members. The full integration of the WEIS footprint into the SPP RTO means power can flow from the current SPP footprint into Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and other areas in the WECC while paying a single wheeling fee.  

R Street Institute, September 2020

This paper underscores how the perverse incentive structure of monopoly regulation institutionalizes extensive rent-seeking behavior, but a quasi-restructured market retains major vulnerabilities. As such, policymakers and regulators should priorities the following: 1) restructure properly: isolate monopolies to distribution services only; 2) regulate distribution monopolies properly; and 3) remain disciplined. 

Energy Innovation, August 2020

This report utilized a combined production-cost and capacity expansion model of the electric power system in seven Southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) out to 2040. The report found that a competitive Southeastern RTO creates cumulative economic savings of approximately $384 billion in by 2040 compared to the business-as-usual case. 

R Street Institute, August 2020

This study described various voluntary trading mechanisms, such as energy imbalance markets (EIMs) and several existing mechanisms for voluntary energy exchange in the Southeast. The study found if Southeastern utilities wish to trade on a voluntary basis, the Energy Imbalance Market, a voluntary market operated by a regional transmission organization (RTO), is a model with quantified success, and leveraging an existing market platform could be less costly than setting up a new market or exchange. The study also found that factors for success in cost and emissions reduction include a footprint with a diversity of resources and customer demand, as well as energy storage that helps avoid curtailing zero-marginal-cost energy. Specifically, centralized market operation can help optimize the system every five minutes, which increases the flexibility of the system and can enhance reliability. 

Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, March 2020

This paper evaluated options for enhancing competition, compared to how utilities traditionally operate the electricity grid, in the Southeastern United States, specifically focusing on wholesale transactions between generators and utilities serving end-use customers. The paper found that enhancing competition for wholesale transactions through a regional organized market, depending on details, is likely to lower wholesale costs, provide nonincumbent generators with easier access to the system, and improve power system efficiency and flexibility. The paper also found that organized regional markets offer relatively more transparency, educational training, and market monitoring, which are important for customers and nonincumbent generators. Lastly, the paper proffered that, from a preliminary evaluation, it appears that southeastern utilities joining a Regional Transmission Organization would likely produce the most benefits compared to other options, especially if it results in a large footprint with diverse resources and customer demand. 

Energy Strategies and Western Interstate Energy Board, December 2019

This study, prepared on behalf of the Western Interstate Energy Board, investigated the flexibility of a future grid in which renewable resources are deployed at levels consistent with enacted and foreseeable public policy requirements of Western states. The report found that “coordinated wholesale markets are effective at increasing system flexibility across the West” and “that it will be very difficult, or at least extremely costly, to achieve Western policy targets without broad coordination of wholesale markets.”

R Street Institute, August 2019

This paper highlighted the reality that the regional transmission organizations (RTOs) play in the U.S. energy economy will continue to evolve and be a matter of fierce debate. While there is no uniform of RTOs’ appropriate role, even among consumers, it is important that RTOs’ decision-making processes should encourage participation and demonstrate transparency. Moreover, it is important that the ultimate decision-makers are geared toward the core public purpose of an RTO—economic efficiency—and not subject to conflicts that lead the RTOs astray from this mission.