East Meets West? Energy Department National Lab Study Focuses on Connecting Power Grid from Coast to Coast

May 31, 2017

For years, experts have discussed the potential to build a more unified electric grid, one in which power loads would be shared across regions. Three primary electricity interconnections link the power infrastructure of the United States: the Eastern Interconnection (east of the Rocky Mountains and a portion of Texas), the Western Interconnection (west of the Rockies), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (nearly all of the state). The Energy Department is working to meet this need through the Grid Modernization Initiative, an effort aimed at meeting the challenges of modernizing and upgrading our electricity infrastructure to enable a more reliable, resilient, and sustainable system. Researchers from the national laboratories— including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest, Argonne, and Oak Ridge— are working with a range of partners, including Iowa State University, utilities, and power operators, to study several potential scenarios for bringing together these interconnections. Learn more about this ongoing work.