The three power grids ... could they be friends?

The Tres Amigas plan is to build a triangular "renewable power trading hub" that would have state-of-the-art superconducting cable in a formation that could handle 5,000 MW of power between and among the Eastern, the Western and the Texas interconnections. The often-bandied notion of a "national power grid" would be something like reality.

And something of a gamble, given that big generating projects and transmission lines would have to develop to hook up with the new hub. In New Mexico, Governor Bill Richardson hopes lots of solar power will grow. Thousands of wind turbines are already in west Texas, and more transmission is needed for them within the state. But developers could ship their output westward instead of east if there were transmission going that way.

The renewables wave will have to be a long, deep one. Government and private money will have to be there, the will to replace fossil-fueled plants with solar and wind will have to persist ... and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will have to promise to let someone build a big line out of west Texas up to Clovis - without roping the Texas grid into FERC jurisdiction.

The small interconnections between the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the rest of the world have so far won waivers from FERC as not significant enough to warrant the commission's imposing itself. But this one? Thousands of megawatts, potentially, would be involved, and FERC would be dealing with a horse of a different color. But the commission is inclined to give the industry its head - let a thousand flowers bloom - especially where renewable power and states' rights are concerned.

The Tres Amigas of the company's name could be the three organizers leading the project: Phil Harris, formerly chief executive at PJM Interconnection; Ziad Alaywan, found of ZGlobal engineering and consulting firm and former director of market operations at the California ISO; and Russell Stidolph, founder and managing director of AltEnergy. Harris and Alaywan also are developing the 500-kV Green Energy Express transmission line in California.

But it is more fun to think of the amigas as the three interconnections, and to contemplate the arbitrage possibilities - surely the inventive trading community will create some - that such a friendship could engender.