The Future of Power: Cross-Border Grid Interconnection
As electricity demand rises, interconnected grids are emerging as a model for future sustainable, cost-efficient energy sharing between regions.
What does the future of energy look like? Can there be a globally unified system in which countries come together to power the world? In the face of increasing energy security concerns and rising energy demands, how the world can increase energy availability is becoming a forefront issue.
Grid interconnection is the linking of electric grids across borders or regions to create larger shared electricity systems. Usually, the goal is to cost-effectively address energy demands by utilizing the different availability of renewable energy resources across multiple areas and increasing overall energy security for the connected areas. As renewable energy resources are intermittent, without interconnection, countries often have to turn to fossil fuel sources during periods of renewable energy deficiency. Grid interconnection can help lower electricity costs and maximize the utilization of renewable energy, advancing goals such as decarbonization, energy security, and renewable energy availability.
Currently, transregional interconnection exists in regions across the world, from the U.S. to the EU to Asia. The U.S. runs one of the largest interconnected power systems, currently employing three major interconnections, with the Eastern and Western interconnections operating independently but connected using high-voltage direct current ties. Notably, ERCOT, the interconnection in Texas, operates independently of both systems, and the Texas blackouts in 2021 illustrate how grid interconnection can help increase energy resilience during high-stress events. As local electricity generation fails, other areas can transmit energy from further, unaffected regions to bridge the electricity gap and stabilize supply.
Another example of cross-border interconnection is the ASEAN Power Grid, a project to connect the national electricity grids of Southeast Asian countries. Energy demand in Southeast Asia is rising rapidly with continued economic expansion, representing an opportunity to increase clean energy generation and develop sustainable grid infrastructure. With vast wind and solar resources, renewable energy has become a cost-effective alternative. However, many nations in Southeast Asia face aging infrastructure, rural infrastructure gaps, and a growing need for foreign investment to modernize their technology. Through cross-border power interconnections, grid upgrades, and development of subsea power cables, countries would be able to share resources to more efficiently, cheaply, and reliably power their countries.
The Monsoon Wind Power Project, which connected the Laos energy grid to Vietnam, provides 600 MW of this interconnected capacity through a first-of-its-kind 500 kV transmission line. It utilizes the strong wind resources of Southern Laos (up to 48% capacity) to provide a varied power source beyond Laos’ current hydropower energy mix and helps supply clean energy to Vietnam, representing the future of the ASEAN grid interconnection sharing model.
The EU also has plans to create a European Supergrid, to increase energy sharing efficiency over long distances and reduce energy losses as renewables are shared from resource-rich areas to demand centers across Europe. This is the EU’s future vision for transnational interconnection, as differing areas of Europe have renewable energy surpluses at different times of the year. However, they have yet to meet their interconnection target of 15% connected by 2030.
China has been rapidly expanding its ultra-high voltage transmission network, connecting its abundant resources in the west to demand centers in the east with greater efficiency. Building on its own network, a global super grid has been proposed by China as a way to enable large-scale renewable energy transmission across continents using UHV technology, which could provide a way to sustainably connect the world’s power supply and demand and maximize renewable energy utilization at higher levels than before. However, it must also be recognized that China’s current rapid build-out has been enabled by its centralized coordination of electric grid planning and policy, and by huge government investments, which differ from the policy support and regulatory processes in the U.S. or Europe. Both the U.S. and Europe must first overcome permitting delays that have significantly slowed down the expansion of transmission infrastructure.
Ultimately, grid interconnection requires collaboration among governments, financiers, technical players, and others, creating a network of complex relationships and geopolitical implications. If the world can eventually adopt a model of global interconnectedness, starting with proximate regional interconnections, energy availability and renewable energy efficiency can increase, advancing towards an ultimate goal of global energy security and sustainability.
Daylia Lian
Undergraduate Seminar FellowDaylia Lian is a second year student in the College of Arts and Sciences studying chemistry with minors in sustainability management and energy and sustainability. Lian is also a 2025 Undergraduate Student Fellow.
