Quite right. What I described in my last post wasn't a grid problem, but the circumstances of an event that illustrate a weakness of the Texas grid, which is what I was talking about in the post before that one. I got too wrapped up in the details.

The bottom line is that the problem for the Texas grid was that it couldn't compensate for the loss of generating capacity by getting more power from outside. And in relation to Tres Amigas, I said in an earlier post, "Access to power from other grids when the Texas grid is short of power will prevent blackouts and increase the reliability of the (Texas) grid (to deliver power to its customers)".

Ultimately, whether the power customer is sitting in the dark or not is what really defines a reliable grid for people, not whether all the transmission equipment is intact.

Of course, isolation can also be a strength in other circumstances.