Last year, I wrote a book (Superpower) about the absolutely needed, long overdue construction of a national power grid. (Link below.)

Yesterday, proved why it is needed.

/small thread

Yesterday, California needed so much electricity that power prices in its grid were >$750mwh.

Skip to the east, eastern Colorado, and electricity could be had for $20/mwh. (H/t to @bjhanneg for pointing this out.)

/more

That's nuts, right. Imagine gasoline costing $1.79 gallon in Omaha and $67/gallon in Sacramento. That's what we're looking at.

But what if we built HVDC transmission lines to move bulk power around, between the windy Plains and the West Coast????

/more

It would have made a difference. A big difference. Without a national grid, it will be hard to decarbonize the grid and it will be unnecessarily costly.

/one more

Read all about the crazy, quixotic quest to jumpstart a national grid -- more relevant than ever:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Superpower/Russell-Gold/9781501163586

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One more thing: despite evidence to contrary, I’m not an HVDC absolutist. More DR & batteries can & should play a role, as do diverse generation. But transmission is foundational.