The Texas grid is separate due to a combination of just wanting to be independent and geography.
Back in the early days of the grid there was little reason to join the growing national grids because of the remoteness of Texas from the other population centers (transmission is expensive and in the early days inefficient) and abundant natural resources that could be used for generating electricity in the region. Before oil it was coal (and there's still a few plants in Texas using local peat coal, but fewer every year). Then oil, and natural gas. Now wind and solar are the new up and coming sources. Natural gas will be with us for awhile -- it's a handy fuel for generating electricity. It still produces CO2 (but less than coal), but can be spun up and down quickly to meet demand, something coal and nuclear aren't so good at.
We're not totally separate, though -- we have 5 DC ties to the other grids. As I write this looks like we're sending out about 350 MWh. Still, those ties are tiny compared to the current load of 59343 MWh.
The Texas grid is separate due to a combination of just wanting to be independent and geography.
Back in the early days of the grid there was little reason to join the growing national grids because of the remoteness of Texas from the other population centers (transmission is expensive and in the early days inefficient) and abundant natural resources that could be used for generating electricity in the region. Before oil it was coal (and there's still a few plants in Texas using local peat coal, but fewer every year). Then oil, and natural gas. Now wind and solar are the new up and coming sources. Natural gas will be with us for awhile -- it's a handy fuel for generating electricity. It still produces CO2 (but less than coal), but can be spun up and down quickly to meet demand, something coal and nuclear aren't so good at.
We're not totally separate, though -- we have 5 DC ties to the other grids. As I write this looks like we're sending out about 350 MWh. Still, those ties are tiny compared to the current load of 59343 MWh.