How Utility Regulators Can Unlock $12.7 Billion in Annual Savings for Customers

This policy brief by RMI outlines the potential for 'clean repowering'—siting new renewable energy projects at existing fossil fuel interconnection points—to accelerate the energy transition and reduce costs for customers in the United States by leveraging Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives.

• Clean repowering allows new renewable energy projects to bypass lengthy interconnection processes, reducing the time to connect to the grid from nearly five years to less than one year by utilizing existing fossil asset interconnection rights.
• The clean repowering strategy could enable 250 GW of new renewable energy projects without requiring transmission upgrades, resulting in an average of $12.7 billion in annual national savings for the ten years following 2025. Vertically integrated utilities are projected to see $46 billion in net present value (NPV) savings by 2054.
• The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program provide the tax credits and low-cost financing necessary to offset the up-front costs of clean energy and the costs associated with more frequent ramping and start-ups, which previously hindered these savings.
• Regional analysis indicates that MISO, PJM, and the Southeast region offer the highest potential for savings. Specifically, Entergy Louisiana could achieve $2.8 billion in NPV savings by reducing the operation of its coal and gas fleet in favor of solar and wind, with the Nine Mile Points gas plant (2 GW capacity) and R S Nelson coal plant (600 MW capacity) identified as key sites.
• RMI recommends that regulators prompt the adoption of clean repowering by requiring utilities to optimize IRA benefits in integrated resource planning (IRP), investigating how tax and financing benefits are passed to customers, and ensuring the use of the DOE's EIR program before its authorization expires on September 30, 2026.

APA

RMI (2024). How Utility Regulators Can Unlock $12.7 Billion in Annual Savings for Customers. https://rmi.org/resources/how-utility-regulators-can-unlock-12-7-billion-in-annual-savings-for-customers/

Chicago

RMI. How Utility Regulators Can Unlock $12.7 Billion in Annual Savings for Customers. 2024. https://rmi.org/resources/how-utility-regulators-can-unlock-12-7-billion-in-annual-savings-for-customers/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=How Utility Regulators Can Unlock $12.7 Billion in Annual Savings for Customers |date=14 February 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/how-utility-regulators-can-unlock-12-7-billion-in-annual-savings-for-customers/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2024how, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{How Utility Regulators Can Unlock \$12.7 Billion in Annual Savings for Customers}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/how-utility-regulators-can-unlock-12-7-billion-in-annual-savings-for-customers/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }