The U.S. Needs a Supergrid

This has been true since well before the ERCOT crisis this year, the CA rolling blackouts last year, and beyond, With the tech available to build this out, it's shortsighted for the vast and varied resources across the big country that is the United States not to be tapped into fully in an integrated grid system. What's really standing in the way is the political will to do so-- as it's a huge investment and a massive undertaking, not to mention the wariness that may come from some about more federal oversight. But if ever there was a unifying moment where the political capital could be there, it'd be in the wake of Texas's disaster and all the resulting outrage, not to mention as we're  still trying to build back the economy and the supergrid project could create so many jobs. 

It would be interesting to see how much strengthening of the grid inter-connectivity and capability could have been reached through TSO cooperation for the money that society is facing in losses during outages like these.

Al excellent article and ideas for a better design. I really like the part that includes Micro GRIDs. They are growing fast and can really help when there is a big storm or large GRID problem. QUOTE=There are smaller ones that could also make a crucial difference in the interim, like regulating utility companies to ensure they repair and weatherize their infrastructure and upping the use of microgrids which can operate separately from the central grid amid high demand.

    As you showed we need all the GRIDS sharing and working together. We need all the ideas working together. weatherization and basic better homes energy management could drop the loads by 50% or more. Most homes leak energy a lot. Windows are terrible and insulation is at a minimum level. It's low cost to make a home more efficient and pays off forever.