Reality Check: The United States Has the Only Major Power Grid without a Plan

This policy brief argues that the United States power grid lacks a comprehensive national development plan, unlike the European Union and China, leaving it fragmented and vulnerable to climate-related extreme weather. It advocates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to mandate minimum inter-regional power transfer capabilities and establish a robust planning process to improve grid resilience and resource sharing.

• The US power grid is highly fragmented, consisting of three separate interconnections—Eastern, Western, and ERCOT—that are almost entirely isolated from one another electrically. Planning for the high-voltage transmission lines that form the backbone of these grids occurs in local isolation, with only six of the 12 transmission planning regions operating as full Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) with the authority to conduct regional planning.
• Unlike the European Union and China, which have national or continental-scale grid development plans, the United States lacks a macro-level grid plan. This fragmentation hinders the coordinated response necessary to handle large-scale weather patterns and extreme events, such as Winter Storm Uri in 2021, which caused over 210 deaths and cost at least $80 billion.
• Increasing inter-regional transfer capability—the ability to move power between regions—would provide economic benefits and emergency insurance value. For example, adding one gigawatt of transmission between ERCOT and the Southeastern US could have saved nearly $1 billion during Winter Storm Uri and maintained heating for hundreds of thousands of Texans.
• The author recommends that FERC implement a two-pronged approach: mandating a minimum amount of inter-regional transfer capability based on a simple, actionable metric, and requiring a robust, scenario-based inter-regional transmission planning process to identify additional benefits and fairly allocate costs.

APA

RMI (2023). Reality Check: The United States Has the Only Major Power Grid without a Plan. https://rmi.org/resources/the-united-states-has-the-only-major-power-grid-without-a-plan/

Chicago

RMI. Reality Check: The United States Has the Only Major Power Grid without a Plan. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/the-united-states-has-the-only-major-power-grid-without-a-plan/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Reality Check: The United States Has the Only Major Power Grid without a Plan |date=12 January 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the-united-states-has-the-only-major-power-grid-without-a-plan/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023reality, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Reality Check: The United States Has the Only Major Power Grid without a Plan}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the-united-states-has-the-only-major-power-grid-without-a-plan/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }