page_title: Super grid
section_title: Superior grid
hierarchical_section_title: Super grid / Concept / Superior grid
caption_attribution_description: English: American Wind Energy Association proposed super grid for the US using 765KV AC transmission. Orange are new lines. Blue are existings 765KV AC lines. Green arrows are back to back HVDC interties between the Western, Eastern, and Texas Interconnections. This project is being championed by w:American Electric Power. Español: La American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) propone una Red de transmisión eléctrica de área extendida para Estados Unidos, using 765KV AC transmission. Orange are new lines. Blue are existings 765KV AC lines. Green arrows are back to back HVDC interties between the Western, Eastern, and Texas Interconnections. This project is being championed by w:American Electric Power.
context_page_description: A super grid or supergrid is a wide-area transmission network that makes it possible to trade high volumes of electricity across great distances. It is sometimes also referred to as a "mega grid". Super grids can support a global energy transition by smoothing local fluctuations of wind energy and solar energy. In this context they are considered as a key technology to mitigate global warming. The latest generation of High-voltage direct current power lines can transmit energy with losses of only 1.6% per 1000 km.
context_section_description: In the second sense of an advanced grid, the super grid is superior not only because it is a wide area mega grid, but also because it is highly coordinated from a macro level spanning nations and continents, all the way down to the micro level scheduling low priority loads like water heaters and refrigeration. In the European SuperSmart Grid proposal and the US Unified Smart Grid concept, such super grids have intelligence features in the wide area transmission layer which integrate the local smart grids into a single wide area super grid. This is similar to how the internet bound together small networks into a single ubiquitous network.
  Wide area transmission can be viewed as a horizontal extension of the smart grid. In a paradigm shift, the distinction between transmission and distribution blurs with the integration as energy flow becomes bidirectional. For example, distribution grids in rural areas might generate more energy than they use, turning the local smart grid into a virtual power plant, or a city's fleet of one million electric vehicles could be used to trim peaks in transmission supply by integrating them to the smart grid using vehicle to grid technology.
  One advantage of such a geographically dispersed and dynamically balanced system is that the need for baseload generation is significantly reduced since intermittency of some sources such as ocean, solar, and wind can be smoothed.
  A series of detailed modeling studies by Dr. Gregor Czisch, which looked at the European-wide adoption of renewable energy and interlinking power grids using HVDC cables, indicates that Europe's entire power usage could come from renewables, with 70% total energy from wind at the same level of cost or lower as at present.
  To some critics, such a wide area transmission layer is not novel; they point out that the technology has little difference from that used for regional and national power transmission networks. Proponents respond that beyond the qualitative smart grid features that allow instantaneous coordination and balancing of intermittent power sources across international boundaries, the quantitative comprehensiveness has a quality all its own. The claim is made that super grids open up markets.
  In the same way that freeways revolutionized interstate transport and the internet revolutionized online commerce when comprehensive high capacity networks were built, it is argued that a high capacity super grid must be built in order to provide a distribution network so comprehensive and with such available capacity that energy trading is only limited by how much electricity entrepreneurs can bring to market.
caption: A 765 kV AC transmission grid designed to carry 400 GW of wind power to cities from Midwest at a cost of $60 billion.[8][9]
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