NEWS: Transmission bottlenecks may spike PJM power costs by up to $1.5M per hour—on a single line.

Pricey plumbing: That’s the major finding from a new report that Gridraven, a DLR software developer, shared with Energy Central. Congestion costs totaled around $75M across 42 of the RTO’s most crowded lines between late March and early May, the company found. Over this period, total PJM congestion costs exceeded $560M. (To dive in deeper, check out Gridraven’s grid congestion tracker here.)

The limitations: In March, PJM began adopting ambient-adjusted transmission ratings to meet FERC’s Order 881 (well ahead of other RTOs). But AARs don’t paint a full picture, Gridraven’s report noted, as they leave out “the cooling effect of real-time wind speeds.” Plus, software-only DLRs avoid the time (and money) required to install all those AAR sensors.

The fix: Using its DLR tech, Gridraven found an average of 14% untapped capacity on PJM’s clogged lines (which could rack up around $49M in monthly savings throughout the region). “Applying this across the grid would relieve the pressure on ratepayers,” Gridraven CEO Georg Rute told Energy Central over email. “This would give the necessary financial headroom for investing into new transmission lines that are sorely needed.”