Infrastructure Maps: Four Ways to See the World's Power Grid
🔌 OpenGridWorks · MapComplete Infrastructure · OpenInfraMap · Grid2Poster
A quiet corner of OpenStreetMap is doing something useful: mapping the entire world’s energy infrastructure. Power plants, transmission lines, substations, pipelines, cables. All public, all open, all machine-readable.
These four tools turn that data into something you can explore.
OpenGridWorks — Power Plants
Global map of power plants with filtering by fuel type. Coal, gas, nuclear, hydro, solar, wind, biomass — each color-coded and clickable for details. Search by plant name or location. The map loads fast because it tiles the data efficiently.
It is the simplest of the four and the best entry point. Type a city and see every power plant within range.
MapComplete Infrastructure
A thematic map that covers the full breadth of utility infrastructure — cables, pipelines, substations, transformers, street cabinets. It is part of the MapComplete project, which builds focused map themes on top of OpenStreetMap data.
The interface is minimal. You zoom in and the features appear. Click any element to see its tags and edit them directly in OSM. There is a built-in contribution workflow if you spot missing data.
OpenInfraMap
The most comprehensive of the three interactive maps. It shows power lines (voltage-labeled), substations, generation facilities, and related infrastructure with a clean, professional rendering. The export feature lets you download data for offline analysis.
The stats page is worth a look — it tracks OSM coverage of power infrastructure by country and shows what percentage of transmission lines have voltage tags.
Grid2Poster — Power Grid to Poster
This one is different. Instead of browsing a map, you generate a print-ready poster of any country’s electrical transmission grid.
It downloads power line data from OpenStreetMap using Overpass, processes it with GeoPandas and OSMnx, and renders a poster with Matplotlib. The output is publication-quality — PNG or SVG at 300 DPI, suitable for framing.
The theme system is surprisingly flexible. paper_grid for a classic engineering look. neon_cyberpunk if you want India’s grid to glow. japanese_ink for something subtler. electric_midnight, midnight_blue, warm_beige, forest, autumn, sunset, emerald — each changes the color palette and line styling completely.
Usage is straightforward:
python create_grid_poster.py --country Portugal
It handles countries, continents, and custom regions (ships with 10 predefined boundaries like Continental Europe, MENA, Southeast Asia). For large areas like Africa you need larger tile sizes and patience — continent-scale runs hit the Overpass API hundreds of times and can take hours.
The gallery on GitHub shows examples for China, South America, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, California, Mexico, Italy, Zambia, Morocco, and Latin America. Each one looks like something you would buy at a print shop.
Why This Matters
Energy infrastructure data is fragmentary and expensive in most of the world. OpenStreetMap’s power grid coverage is incomplete but improving fast — projects like MapYourGrid coordinate volunteers to trace transmission lines from satellite imagery. These tools make the data visible and useful at every stage of that process.
If you care about energy transitions, grid resilience, or just want a beautiful poster of your country’s electrical backbone, all four are worth your time.
Crepi il lupo! 🐺