One morning earlier this year, all seemed calm in the dimly lit, bunkerlike control room of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) here, which manages an electricity grid that stretches across the high plains from North Dakota to New Mexico. Wall-size displays showed electricity flowing smoothly through SPP’s 100,000 kilometers of transmission lines, with 80% of the power coming from plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

The control room’s tranquility, however, belied an emerging, high-stakes battle to redraw this map. SPP and other U.S. grid operators are facing an unprecedented tsunami of requests from energy firms to connect thousands of proposed wind, solar, and power storage projects to their transmission lines. The projects are essential to meeting the U.S. goal of eliminating all planet-warming carbon emissions from the nation’s electricity supply by 2035, analysts say. Together, they could generate almost 2000 gigawatts of electricity—exceeding the total capacity of the country’s existing power plants.

Para leer más ingrese a:

https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-digital-roadblock-keeping-green-electricity-u-s-grid