In America’s fragmented electricity landscape, not all regions produce what they use and a few stand out as key power exporters.

Exporting volts: Power trading helps balance supply and demand across regions, ensuring electricity flows where it's needed most, especially during peak hours or shortages.

Huge load centers are often large net importers. California, with a population of nearly 40 million people, imports significant power from the hydro-rich Northwest and the sunny Southwest regions to meet its demand.

Transmission: Enabling much of the power trading is large regional transmission lines, like the Pacific DC Intertie in the West and the PJM–Southeast Interfaces.

Last year, roughly 5% of total US power use was traded between the regions.