$17 Billion Grid Congestion Costs Devastate US in Record-Breaking Year

The US grid congestion costs reached an all-time high of $17 billion in 2025, according to a report from Grid Strategies.

This is a significant jump from the previous year's total of $12 billion and nearly doubles the average annual congestion costs between 2016 and 2021, which were roughly $9.2 billion.

The main factors contributing to this increase are the failure to build enough new transmission lines, extreme weather conditions, especially last year's hot summer, and high natural gas prices that widen the gap between low- and high-cost areas on the grid.

PJM and ERCOT were the two regions with the highest congestion costs, at $3.2 billion and $2.5 billion respectively.