[it_luddite]

Stopped reading at "while all the US grids operate on the same frequency, those frequencies aren't always aligned—the peak in the AC of one grid may line up with the trough in a neighboring grid". Practically every regional grid is interconnected to it's neighbor. If they get this basic infrastructure wrong, I'm unwilling to fact check the rest of their premise.

[mbrubeck]

The article doesn't claim that interconnection is impossible, just that it requires extra AC->AC conversion hardware at each interface.

[VLM]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_transformer

VFTs are cool

[it_luddite]

I didn't even read that far :0 The point of my comment was their lack of understanding of how the existing transmission system is connected to their neighboring regions. This is the base infrastructure of the electric energy market (long term, day ahead, and spot markets). These interconnects between regions (grids) requires that frequency is in synch and any deviation will cause a disconnect.

[mikeash]

My understanding is that there are five separate grids which are not frequency synchronized, as described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Interconnection

They are connected, but with DC or other techniques that don't require matching phase.

Not so?