Why GETs are the Go-To Solution for Speed to Power

Molly Podolefsky, Ph.D., Clarum Advisors

August 25, 2025

Looking back at the energy landscape in 2025, we will remember this as the year load growth took center stage. With hyperscalers breaking ground on new data centers at a breathtaking pace, commercial and industrial plants reshoring, and electrification of everything gaining traction, forces conspired across the US economy driving clean energy demand to new heights. And we are told this is just the beginning. After decades of flat load growth, utilities and grid operators who have trained for a marathon are being asked to run a sprint. Throughout the market we hear a common refrain—how will we keep up with demand if we’re already falling behind?

The knee-jerk reaction is to build more generation—if we don’t have enough power, let’s just make more of it. This instinct is not wrong; solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal all have a role to play, and investments today will yield resources to help meet demand during the next decade and beyond. But deployment of new generation assets takes time—from design and permitting, to grid interconnection, through engineering, procurement and construction, to commissioning, the process of building out new generation can span over a decade. Expanding the timeline even further, in many cases, existing transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure is insufficient to connect these resources, requiring build-out of new systems with their own attenuated timelines.

The Role of Grid-enhancing Technologies

So how do we satisfy the near-term demand for more clean power? Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) hold the key to unlocking more value on the grid using generation resources and T&D assets already in place. GETs are hardware and software solutions that improve the capacity, efficiency and reliability of existing T&D infrastructure, enabling adaptive control of a dynamic grid. Rather than starting over and building something entirely new, GETs enable system operators to calibrate, refine and optimize system performance to transmit more power using the system architecture and components already in the field.

By leveraging existing assets, GETs hold the potential to improve power delivery in less time and at a lower cost relative to buildout of new generation, transmission and distribution resources. According to the Department of Energy, full deployment of GETs across viable corridors throughout the US could defer $5 – 35 billion in T&D costs over a period of 5 years. Moreover, the majority of GETs can be deployed in under a year, often in just 3 – 6 months.[i]

Dynamic Line Rating

Transmission lines are often treated as if their capacity is static, when in fact, it varies dynamically with temperature, weather and other environmental factors. To ensure safe operation, transmission lines are assigned a static capacity rating, which power flowing through them should not exceed. At any moment, the effective capacity of a line could be significantly higher than its rating, but lacking real-time environmental data, grid operators traditionally ignore that potential excess capacity.

Dynamic line rating (DLR) solutions leverage advanced software systems, often enhanced through AI, to calculate the actual carrying capacity of transmissions lines in the field at each given moment, accounting for environmental factors such as conductor temperature, ambient weather and line sag. While most DLR platforms leverage hardware-based sensors to collect information, some systems are entirely software-based. Through integration with utilities’ energy management systems (EMS), DLR allows grid managers to adjust power flow dynamically, increasing the power delivery capacity of existing lines. Based on the data collected through sensors, DLR solutions can often provide additional situational awareness and asset health monitoring benefits around tilted poles, conductor anomalies, wildfire risks, line icing and other environmental threats. DLR deployment delivers cost-effective speed to power with deployment in under 6 months at less than 25% of the cost of traditional upgrades.[ii]

Several major utilities in the US have recently undertaken significant DLR deployments, increasing line capacity in weeks to months, as opposed to years. AES Corporation and LineVision completed the largest single DLR deployment in the US across Ohio and Indiana in 2024, increasing average capacity by 61% and exceeding static ratings 100% of the time. With sensor installation completed over a two-week time period, the system began providing actionable feedback within just three months.[iii] In 2025, Great River Energy implemented an even larger deployment in Minnesota through Heimdall Power. Spanning 10 transmission lines and covering 175 miles of grid, the project increased transmission capacity during peak demand by 63% and is expected to deliver $3.2 million in savings over a five-year period.[iv] Similarly in 2022, PPL Electric deployed DLR across two of its transmission lines through Ampacimon, avoiding $13 – 68 million in upgrade costs for under $1 million.[v]

Topology Optimization

Most transmission grids were not designed using optimization software, and as they grow and expand, their topology can become less efficient over time. Topology optimization utilizes advanced software solutions to optimally reconfigure the flow of energy on these systems. Using circuit breakers already in place to redirect power, topology optimization provides a low-cost approach to increasing capacity on existing transmission lines and systems. It can also be used to improve the design of new transmission infrastructure, building in optimal performance from the start.

Alliant Energy leveraged NewGrid topology optimization software in 2021 to benefits its Iowa customers, reducing congestion through system reconfiguration. Over a two-year period, the engagement delivered a 49% reduction in congestions costs, saving customers over $24 million. While a select set of reconfiguration recommendations were implemented, full reconfiguration based on the findings would have reduced congestion costs by 80%.[vi] A retrospective study by Evergy and NewGrid using data from the Southwest Power Pool from 2022 found topology optimization could have reduced transmission overloads by 98%, leading to an 85% reduction in associated congestion costs.[vii] Topology optimization implementation typically takes less than six months, driving immediate, low-cost improvements in speed to power.

Advanced Power Flow Controls

At times, grid operators can increase transmission capacity by effectively re-routing power flow away from congested corridors and into transmission line segments that are underused. Advanced power flow controls (APFC) can be deployed to increase line capacity cost-effectively in under six months by strategically re-routing power flow. These advanced tools manipulate line reactance to change the direction of flow, redirecting power from overloaded lines to areas with available capacity. Studies suggest deployment of APFCs across all relevant segments of the US transmission grid could unlock 60 GW of additional capacity, avoiding over $15 billion in T&D costs over 5 years.[viii]

A case study of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) service territory in 2022 showed APFC’s could reduce congestion-induced renewables curtailment by 23 to 43%, more than doubling the use of underutilized lines.[ii] Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Smart Wires will complete a project by the close of 2025 leveraging APFCs to boost the capacity of a critical substation by over 100 MW, enabling the build out of new data centers adjacent to the station.[ix] Successful deployments in New York, Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and projects underway in Vermont, Illinois and Texas, further underscore the potential for APFCs to provide immediate, low-cost congestion relief to US transmission grids.

Overcoming Barriers to Adoption

Despite their potential to unlock cost-effective power on the grid at speed, utilities have been slow to adopt GETs. Some of the barriers are economic—in a world of flat demand, utilities lack a strong incentive to squeeze more power out of existing systems. Today’s rapid and unrelenting increase in load growth has eroded this barrier making GETs a “must have” as opposed to a “nice to have” for grid operators. Other barriers are systemic—utility load forecasting approaches and investment decision-making tools have not always included or prioritized GETs. In response to mounting grid congestion, higher wholesale energy prices and pressure on rates, state legislators and other groups have expressed their support for stronger DLR requirements for transmission providers[x], building on previous Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rules such as Order 881, which required transmission providers to account for ambient temperature in line ratings, paving the way for broader incorporation of DLR.[xi] More recently, FERC Order 2023, required transmission providers to consider DLR, APFC, advanced conductors and other grid-enhancing technologies as a default step during interconnection studies.[xii] As GETs gain visibility and traction in the market, the regulatory landscape will continue evolving to support their deployment.

Looking Ahead

As utilities prepare for the coming year, GETs should top the list of strategies they deploy to stay ahead of load growth. Data centers and hyperscalers have imparted not only their appetite for load growth, but also their sense of urgency and need for speed to the US energy market. Traditional approaches to expanding generation, transmission and distribution cannot deliver the speed to power utilities need to keep up with demand. GETs can, and they can do it at a fraction of the cost. Utilities can unlock the full value of existing infrastructure investments affordably, efficiently and cost-effectively in partnership with GET providers.

[i] https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/LIFTOFF_DOE_Innovative-Grid-Deployment.pdf

[ii] Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment

[iii] https://www.aes.com/sites/aes.com/files/2024-04/AES-LineVision-Case-Study-2024.pdf

[iv] https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20250805835774/from-pilot-to-proof-new-report-details-12-months-of-americas-largest-dlr-deployment

[iv] Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment

[v] https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Topology-Optimization-Case-Studies.pdf

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment

[viii] Microsoft Word - Grid Enhancing Technologies - A Case Study on Ratepayer Impact - February 2022 CLEAN as of 032322.docx

[ix] https://www.smartwires.com/2025/05/28/pge-and-smart-wires-enhance-grid-reliability-capacity-for-data-centers-in-san-jose/

[x] https://ncel.net/articles/state-legislators-call-on-ferc-to-require-dynamic-line-ratings-for-increased-grid-capacity/

[xi] https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-rule-improve-transmission-line-ratings-will-help-lower-transmission-costs