Grid map

Electricity moving between the balancing areas that run the US grid, hour by hour, over every power plant in the country and the projects we track. Streaks run from areas with supply to spare toward ones drawing it in; brighter and redder means more megawatts. Turn on state shading to see where capacity is due to retire, how old the fleet is, and where new plants are planned. Tap an area, a plant, a project or a state.

Shade byand Firm power only

Area outlines

Flow on a link (MW)

505004,000

Hour ending, ET1:00 AM

Links Labels

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Tap an area's dot, a power plant, one of our projects (◆), a data center or a state to see its numbers.

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Biggest flows this hour

3,174 MW
3,001 MW
2,097 MW
1,970 MW
1,784 MW
1,636 MW

147 links between 67 areas on Fri, Nov 6. The faint drift away from the links is there for texture and carries no data.

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Sources: power flows from the EIA Hourly Electric Grid Monitor (Form EIA-930), updated every morning, usually two days behind while EIA finishes collecting; both sides of each link report it and we average the two. Power plants, years online and planned retirements from EIA's monthly generator inventory (Form EIA-860M), lower 48 only; "retiring" means the owner has reported a planned retirement date, which can change, and "planned" counts additions due by 2035. Firm power counts each technology at a rough share of its size, mostly from PJM's 2028/29 capacity ratings; real values vary by region. Interconnection queues from Berkeley Lab's Queued Up data (requests still active at the end of 2024); load growth from EIA-861 retail sales; reliability risk from NERC's 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (2026–2030; our matching of balancing areas to NERC areas is approximate). Transmission lines of 230 kV and up from © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); OpenStreetMap's coverage is good but not complete. The opportunity read is a simple points rule over these numbers, shown with every reason: a starting point for a closer look, not advice. Electricity prices from EIA's Electric Power Monthly. Each area's dot sits at the centre of its generation, and streaks follow arcs between dots, not actual transmission lines. Links to Canada and Mexico are drawn at the border. State shapes: US Census Bureau.