Blackout risks are rising – why neighboring power grids can’t just send extra electricity where it’s needed |
Extreme weather is posing a growing threat to the power supplies Americans rely on.
In 2021, a fierce winter storm left millions of Texans without electricity and water for days. Hurricane Helene in 2024 knocked out power to about 5 million customers across the U.S. Southeast.
Beyond the immediate human and economic toll, major blackouts like these often leave behind the same unsettling contrast: One region goes dark while nearby places still have power.
This raises a question: If electricity is still available somewhere nearby, why can’t it be sent where it is needed most?
There has to be a wire into the crisis
The U.S. bulk power system is not one seamless national grid, but three major grid regions known as interconnections – the Eastern, Western and ERCOT – Electric Reliability Council of Texas – systems. There are very few transmission lines between them, so if one has too little power, the others may not be able to help much.
That limited connectivity made the 2021 Texas blackout far more severe: As the storm knocked out gas lines and power generators, ERCOT was forced into the largest deliberate electricity shutoff in U.S. history. Operators cut power to millions of customers to avoid a total grid collapse.
More than 4.5 million Texans lost power, and hospitals across the state struggled with electricity and water shortages. At that time, the total power ERCOT was able to import from the neighboring systems could cover only about 6% of the demand.
Today, there are proposals to build more transfer capacity between Texas and neighboring grids. The Southern Spirit Transmission project, announced by the Department of Energy in 2024, would include a 320-mile transmission line connecting Texas with Louisiana and Mississippi. According to the DOE, the project could........