Improving the Electric Grid

Explore MIT research + analysis on improving the U.S. electric grid.

Climate Policy Center

How CPC Research Informs Policy that Leads to Action: Interregional Transmission

Our collaboration with Senator John Hickenlooper’s office on the BIG WIRES Act exemplifies exactly what we’re here to do.

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Why Interregional Transmission Matters – And What’s Blocking It | April 2026
- This policy brief explains how stronger connections between regional grids can lower costs, reduce emissions, and improve resilience during extreme weather.
Data Centers and the Grid: Temporal Flexibility Can Lower Costs, But May Increase Emissions | July 2025
- Flexible data center operations can lower grid costs, but emissions outcomes depend on the regional energy mix. This policy brief explains what that tradeoff means for policies designed to manage growing data center demand.
Data Centers and the Grid | July 2025
- Moving data center workloads away from peak hours can reduce grid costs, but may increase emissions where grids rely more heavily on fossil fuels. This one-page policy insight explains the policy tradeoff.
Federal Policy Options for Improving Grid Reliability and Reducing Costs with Transmission | January 2025
- Which federal transmission policy would deliver the greatest value? This policy brief compares four approaches and finds that region-specific requirements optimized for cost and reliability produce the largest modeled benefits.
Potential Impacts of Subsidizing Transmission | December 2024
- How much could a federal transmission tax credit deliver? This policy brief finds that a 30% investment tax credit could add 25 GW of capacity, save $562 million annually, and lower emissions.

Flexible data centers reduce power system costs but can increase emissions | July 2026
- This iScience paper models flexible data center operations across Texas, the Mid-Atlantic, and the western United States. Costs fall in every region, while emissions decline only where renewable power is sufficiently competitive.
Implications of policy-driven transmission expansion for costs, emissions and reliability in the USA | December 2025
- This peer-reviewed study evaluates federal proposals such as the BIG WIRES Act, finds that such requirements could expand interregional transmission by 68% and improve reliability during extreme weather.
Flexible Data Centers and the Grid: Lower Costs, Higher Emissions? | August 2025
- Flexible data centers lower system costs across three U.S. regions, with savings reaching 5% in Texas. This MIT CEEPR research brief explains that emissions can fall by up to 40% in Texas but rise in regions with less clean power.
Bridging the Gaps: The Impact of Interregional Transmission on Emissions and Reliability | August 2024
- In collaboration with MIT CEEPR, this working paper models the BIG WIRES Act and finds the policy could expand interregional transmission by 68%, save $487 million annually, and reduce CO2 emissions by 43.33 million metric tons.
Evaluating the Impact of the Connect the Grid Act for Texas | June 2024
- This MIT CEEPR research commentary evaluates the Connect the Grid Act, which would connect ERCOT to neighboring grids. Modeling suggests the policy could reduce household outages by 48% to 79% and deliver substantial annual savings.
Evaluating the Impact of the BIG WIRES Act | January 2024
- Preliminary modeling in this MIT CEEPR research commentary finds that the BIG WIRES Act could reduce outages by 58% during a Winter Storm Elliott-scale event and save $330 million annually..