Next Energy· 2026Q1· Review
A comprehensive review of U.S. wholesale electricity markets: Structure, challenges, geopolitical tensions, current trends and future directions
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
U.S. wholesale electricity markets, led by ISOs/RTOs, have evolved from cost-based monopolies to competitive structures, improving short-run efficiency but facing challenges like revenue insufficiency and integrating variable renewables.
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Key points
- U.S. wholesale electricity markets have transitioned from vertically integrated monopolies to competitive structures coordinated by ISOs/RTOs.
- Market designs vary across seven major ISOs/RTOs, employing strategies for resource adequacy and renewable energy integration.
- Key challenges include revenue insufficiency, long interconnection queues, and valuing essential reliability services like inertia and flexibility.
- Existing market designs struggle to meet demands for deep decarbonization and increased inverter-based resources.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Restructuring has transformed the United States (U.S.) electricity sector from cost-based, vertically integrated monopolies to competitive Wholesale Electricity Markets (WEMs), marking one of the major shifts in the modern energy industry. Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Organisations (ISOs/ RTOs) have led this transition by coordinating generation, transmission, and market operations across large regions. This paper reviews the evolution of U.S WEMs and examines how restructuring has shaped market competitiveness, operational efficiency, and environmental performance. Seven major ISOs/RTOs are compared, which shows diverse background market structures, from capacity markets to energy-only markets, where each region follows a different strategy to ensure resource adequacy and Renewable Energy (RE) integration. This market-based coordination has improved short run efficiency, however major challenges persist, which includes revenue insufficiency, long interconnection queues, and the evaluation of essential reliability services such as inertia and flexibility due to integration of variable RE. The review finds that the restructuring has produced a hybrid and continually evolving system; however, market designs built for a twentieth-century grid now face the demands of deep decarbonisation, electrification, and an increasingly inverter-based resource mix. The study found that the next phase of market evolution must shift from an energy-based to a value-based structure. By assessing ongoing reforms and emerging design proposals, this review identifies the regulatory and market innovations which are needed to support a reliable, affordable, and decarbonised grid. The study also took into account the effect of Covid-19 and recent geopolitical tensions on the U.S energy sector.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Next Energy, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Electrical and Electronic EngineeringEngineering