Inspiration
When transmission lines run at full capacity, cheap upstate power can’t reach downstate New York, and prices go up there. We wanted to find out where congestion costs the most and why projects like Smart Path Connect and CHPE matter.
What it does
We compared real-time congestion costs across NY’s 11 pricing zones from 2023 to 2025. Prices and congestion move together (correlation ≈ −0.45). The same three zones topped both rankings: Long Island, NYC, and Capital had the highest prices ($51.60, $47.05 and $45.20/MWh) and the heaviest congestion (−$10.44, −$6.13 and −$5.18/MWh).
How we built it
We used NYISO monthly zone data from the hackathon kit. We calculated averages weighted by hours, ranked the zones, made a scatter plot and two bar charts, and designed our slides in Canva.
Challenges we ran into
The sign convention was confusing at first: negative congestion means a higher price. We also had to weight the averages correctly and finish everything in five hours.
Accomplishments that we’re proud of
We learned grid pricing in a single day and found a clear story: the most expensive zones are also the most congested.
What we learned
We learned how LBMP breaks down into energy, losses and congestion. We also learned what this data can’t prove: which line caused the congestion, how many total dollars were paid, or what caused a change.
What’s next for Team 5 - Grid Congestion
We want to look at seasonal and hourly patterns, check how Moses South flow relates to congestion in zones D, F and J, and map congestion across the state.
