DERs Could Cut US Power System Costs by $600B by 2050, Report Finds
A Brattle Group study for Pew Charitable Trusts projects distributed energy resources could save over $600 billion in grid costs and ease household electricity bills.
Distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, battery storage, and smart appliances could prevent more than $600 billion in U.S. power system costs through 2050 if deployment barriers are removed, according to a new report prepared by The Brattle Group for The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The analysis, released in November 2026, finds that broader adoption of these technologies could meaningfully slow the growth of household electricity bills, offering consumers a measure of relief as overall power demand is projected to climb sharply in the decades ahead.
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Researchers also emphasized the grid-management benefits of expanded DER deployment. By distributing generation and storage capacity closer to end users, utilities and grid operators gain additional flexibility to handle uncertain demand swings — a concern that has grown as extreme weather events and electrification of transportation and heating place new strains on the network.
The report frames the $600 billion figure as the potential savings unlocked specifically by addressing policy, regulatory, and market barriers that currently limit how widely these resources can be deployed and compensated. The findings add analytical weight to ongoing debates in state legislatures and federal regulatory proceedings about how to structure incentives and market rules for distributed generation.
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