Electric power fantasies collide out West
By
David Wojick
|
August 11th, 2025
Westerners are independent people. This independence is even reflected in the West’s electric power grid. There are two major American grids, called respectively the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The north-south dividing line is roughly just east of Colorado. Texas, which never got over being a separate country for nine years, has its own grid.
The Eastern Interconnection is divided up among, and run by, a group of central planning agencies. Some are called Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs), while others are Independent System Operators (ISOs), but it is all the same thing. The Western Interconnection has no such controllers except California, a world unto itself, has an ISO.
But there is a movement afoot to create an RTO to run the Western Interconnection. The reason is a well known fantasy: namely wanting to run the grid on wind and solar. That we all freeze on windless winter nights is irrelevant to these folks.
https://www.cfact.org/2025/08/11/electric-power-fantasies-collide-out-west/
