The Eastern Interconnection—700 GW of generation stitched together east of the Rockies—looks a lot less connected when the weather turns ugly. (E&E News)
A yearlong review by the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative flagged transmission bottlenecks that keep regions from importing emergency electricity during heat waves or blizzards—leaving large swaths of the East exposed.
Why it matters: The grid has about 700 GW of tightly synchronized capacity, but surging demand is colliding with more extreme weather. Without stronger interregional ties, local outages get harder to backstop.