A national highway system for electricityĭwight Eisenhower had been thinking about a national interstate highway system for decades before he was inaugurated as president in 1953. The electric grid moves power from generators, which often are located far from population centers, to energy customers. These high-capacity transmission systems interconnect energy resources and areas of high electricity demand, known as load centers, across large geographic regions. At Iowa State University we have worked to quantify the benefits that macrogrids can bring to the U.S. My engineering research focuses on electric power systems. And President Biden’s infrastructure plan would move in this direction by allocating billions of dollars to build high-voltage transmission lines that can “move cheaper, cleaner electricity to where it is needed most.” But over the past decade, researchers at national laboratories and universities have been working closely with industry engineers to design an interstate electricity system that can. Today it’s not possible to move electricity seamlessly from one end of the U.S. For example, during the February blackouts in Texas, utilities were generating electricity from hydropower in the Pacific Northwest, natural gas in the Northeast, wind on the northern Plains and solar power in the Southwest. The Texas deep freeze in February knocked out 40% of the state’s electric generating capacity.ĭuring such events, unaffected regions may have power to spare.

Major disasters can leave thousands of people in the dark. Many kinds of extreme events can disrupt electricity service, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, extreme heat, extreme cold and extended droughts.

North american power grid