Considering that this lack of regulation resulted in Texas being only ”seconds and minutes” from a months-long blackout in 2021, I disagree that it is a good idea.
Having lived on the east coast with blackouts lasting up to a week with some regularity and in Texas with one major blackout from a historical event.. I'll stick to Texas.
> More than 160,000 of their customers in East Texas and Louisiana remain without power as of 4 p.m. Sunday. Some Texans may have to wait for full restoration until June 23 — a week after losing power, the provider said.
> An Enhanced Fujita-1 tornado measuring a half-mile wide caused severe damage to homes in Panola County in East Texas on Friday before moving to northwest Louisiana. The tornado had winds up to 110 mph with a 7.78-mile path length, according to estimates from the National Weather Service.
Are you expecting Texas to roll out Tornado proof lines?
I don't think the problem there is regulation, but scope of storms and suitability of undergrounding transmission lines in the local geography. Maybe a bit of regulation there, although it's at the state level: under WA law, my utility has to charge affected users the additional costs related to installing wires underground and must gather their consent, unless there are special circumstances that allow them to pay for it out of general funds. This usually means not a lot of undergrounding, because people usually don't want to pay the costs.
Maybe “months-long” was hyperbole, but the (former) CEO of ERCOT has stated that it would take weeks, if not longer, to do a black start of the grid. I’m inclined to believe that as a baseline since statements like that make him personally look bad.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/texas-power-outages-...