[gruez]

>Most of Texas can't. That's the issue.

Wikipedia seems to contradict your claim. Am I missing something here?

>The Texas Interconnection is maintained as a separate grid for political, rather than technical reasons,[1] but can also draw some power from other grids using DC ties.

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

[CyanLite2]

That's DC power not AC needed to power homes, and even then only 2 minor junction points.

The power plants and substations are still needed to act as a giant DC-to-AC inverter. So if the plants are offline then the grid is effectively down, as it was in the Feb 2021 blizzard.

[pfdietz]

The DC is converted to AC after it crosses the bridge. The use of DC interconnects means the AC on the two grids doesn't have to be synchronized.

[lovich]

Does maintaining a system for political reasons remove the technical drawbacks?

We’re mostly engineers on this board, have you never had to build a substandard system to meet the political needs of a higher up and then watched it blow up in their face as reality doesn’t care about political needs?

[JamesBarney]

Those interconnections are basically small scale arbitrage connections setup to take advantage of the difference in spot prices. They aren't close to the scale needed to make a dent in a power shortage.