New Grid Law Offers Utilities 10%–25% Cut of Savings to Boost Power Line Capacity

The Advancing GETs Act of 2025 is essentially a plan to upgrade our aging electrical infrastructure without having to build thousands of miles of new transmission lines. It focuses on encouraging utility companies to adopt “Grid-Enhancing Technologies” (GETs)—which are basically smart hardware and software that can squeeze more capacity, efficiency, and reliability out of the transmission lines we already have. The core of the bill is a financial incentive: companies that install these technologies can earn back between 10% and 25% of the money saved by using the GETs over a three-year period, provided the project is expected to save at least four times its installation cost.

The Smart Grid Upgrade: Pay for Performance

Section 3 sets up this “shared savings incentive.” Think of it like this: if you’re a utility and you install a GET system that costs $1 million but saves the grid—and ultimately consumers—$10 million in congestion and operational costs over three years, you get a slice of that $10 million saving. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must set the exact percentage (between 10% and 25%) within 18 months, and that rate has to be consistent for every project. This is a big deal because right now, utilities often make money by building big, expensive new things. This bill changes the game by letting them profit from making existing infrastructure smarter and more efficient—a much faster and cheaper way to expand capacity. For the average person, this could mean fewer power outages and potentially lower long-term energy costs because the grid isn't constantly struggling with bottlenecks.

Mapping the Bottlenecks (and Who Pays for Them)

If the incentive is the carrot, Section 4 is the spotlight. It mandates an unprecedented level of transparency about one of the biggest hidden costs in your electric bill: transmission congestion. Starting one year after the rules are finalized, transmission operators must submit annual reports to FERC detailing the costs they incurred managing grid congestion. If a single bottleneck costs more than $500,000 to manage in a year, they have to specifically identify the physical problem and what they plan to do to fix it. This data will be used by FERC and the Department of Energy (DOE) to create a public, annual map showing exactly where the grid is struggling and how much those struggles are costing us. For consumers, this is huge: we finally get to see the financial impact of grid inefficiencies, which creates leverage for regulators and the public to demand fixes.

Cutting Through the Red Tape

Section 5 tackles the practical challenge of technology adoption. New tech is great, but getting it approved and integrated can be a nightmare. To smooth this process, the Secretary of Energy is required to create an application guide for utilities and developers looking to use GETs. They also have to establish a technical assistance “clearinghouse”—a central repository of successful and failed GETs projects. This means if a utility in Arizona wants to install a new sensor system, they can check the clearinghouse to see what worked (or didn't) for a utility in New York. The bill authorizes dedicated funding for this effort: $5 million in 2025 and $1 million annually through 2036. This support system lowers the technical barrier for adoption, making it easier for smaller utilities and regional operators to jump in.

The Fine Print: What to Watch Out For

While this bill is a solid step toward a smarter grid, there are a couple of areas where the devil is in the details. First, the minimum requirement for the incentive is that the expected savings must be four times the cost. Since this is based on a projection, FERC will need to establish very clear, strict rules to prevent developers from submitting overly optimistic forecasts just to qualify. Second, while the long-term goal is cheaper, more reliable power, ratepayers might bear the short-term cost of the initial GETs installation. The hope is that the efficiency gains quickly offset these costs, but that relies on the incentive program working exactly as planned. Overall, this bill is less about building new infrastructure and more about maximizing the value of what we already have, using financial incentives and transparency to drive modernization.