A report which The Brattle Group has prepared for The Pew Charitable Trusts has estimated that the removal of policy barriers to distributed energy resources would avoid $614 billion in US power system costs through 2050. In that outlook, about 105 GW of utility-scale storage would be replaced by batteries and other flexible resources at the grid edge.
Avoided costs: $614 billion
Study horizon: Through 2050
New DER capacity: Over 400 GW
VPP storage, 2050: 35 GW
Grid-edge shift: 105 GW
Household saving: $122 a year
Three-policy savings: $266 billion
Regions modelled: 25
The Brattle Group, a US-based economic consulting firm, has estimated that a wider use of distributed energy resources (DERs) would avoid about $614 billion in US power system costs through 2050, once the policy barriers to them have been removed. The estimate has been given in The National Case for a More Distributed Power Grid, a report prepared for The Pew Charitable Trusts and released on 5 November 2026. The savings, it says, would offset about half of the projected rise in household bills beyond inflation.
A large share of that value is to come from batteries. The country has 113 GW of DER capacity today, and the authors expect it to reach 524 GW by 2050. Of that total, the distributed storage which is enrolled in virtual power plant (VPP) programs is projected to grow from 1 GW to 35 GW, and distributed resources are to account for 21% of all storage additions. As a result, roughly 105 GW of utility-scale storage would be replaced by distributed storage and other flexibility at the grid edge.
Many homes and businesses already have technologies that could help the grid meet rising demand, and adoption of those technologies will continue to grow. The opportunity is to treat them as resources in utility planning rather than leave their capabilities untapped. At scale, DERs could avoid or defer a portion of US infrastructure investment needs, reduce pressure on household bills, and give utilities more flexibility in the face of uncertain demand.Ryan Hledik, a Principal at The Brattle Group and a coauthor of the report
The report has also traced the savings to their sources. Of the six policy recommendations which Pew had published in April, three, namely the inclusion of DERs in distribution planning, the reduction of permitting costs and the reform of interconnection, would deliver $266 billion. A further $39 billion would be saved if inflexible export limits were lifted, since 12 GW of storage would then be brought to the grid edge. The average household bill would, in turn, be $122 a year lower by 2050, in current dollars.
These findings have been drawn from 25 US regions. The authors have, however, added a caution, for reactive power and voltage support are needed at particular points of the grid, and those needs could limit how far distributed storage may take the place of utility-scale plants.
Some US utilities have already begun to draw on customer batteries. In October, DTE Energy launched Michigan’s first residential battery VPP pilot with sonnen, which is to link nearly 100 homes in Ann Arbor. In the same month, Madison Energy Infrastructure announced a 50 MW/200 MWh distributed BESS portfolio for CORE Electric Cooperative in Colorado.