The EARNEST Consortium, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is dedicated to identifying and advancing solutions for the future of the U.S. electricity system. As part of its public engagement, EARNEST is launching its first webinar series, focused on “U.S. Grid Reliability and Resilience.”

This third session will feature research from the EARNEST team at the University of Texas at Austin, addressing growing concerns about grid reliability in Texas.

In recent years, Texas has faced mounting challenges from extreme weather events, such as winter storms and heat waves, that have exposed vulnerabilities in the state’s power infrastructure. While solutions such as energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed energy resources have been widely discussed, another promising option is the development of interregional transmission that connects the Texas grid with other U.S. grids.

To evaluate this strategy, the research team developed a novel framework to model how the Texas grid might evolve with access to various interregional ties. The framework also enables stress testing of the grid by simulating how it would perform under extreme events like a severe winter storm, offering new insights into grid resilience and system planning.