This article studies the production of a power grid across six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, known as ‘the backbone,’ which has been conceptualized as an answer to power outages. First it analyzes how experts working with and around the GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) advance claims to a regional territorial imagination. Second, it shows that the construction of the grid not only indicates a shift in the material arrangement of wires and substations, but also necessitates new understandings of transparency and a new formula for the electricity price, facilitating the cutting of government subsidies along with additional price increases. Third, it interrogates how electricity is consumed in the region. Policy-makers expected that electricity price increases would lead to lower rates of consumption. Yet after price hikes were instituted, analysts reported how they had no impact. Users behaved in ways that the grid’s engineers did not anticipate. Overall the article shows how various actors conduct ‘boundary work,’ that is, how they set limits between the political, the financial and the technical while producing the backbone. The article explores how this boundary work helps stabilize a particular sociotechnical imaginary of energy security in the GCC, masking anxieties associated with a future beyond oil.

本文研究了横跨六个海湾合作委员会（GCC）国家（称为“主干”）的电网的生产情况，该概念已被概念化为电力中断的答案。首先，它分析了与海湾合作委员会互连管理局（GCCIA）及其周围的专家如何将主张扩大到区域领土的想象力。其次，它表明，电网的建设不仅表明电线和变电站的材料布置发生了变化，而且还需要对透明度和电价的新公式有了新的认识，从而有利于削减政府补贴和附加电价。增加。第三，它询问该地区的用电方式。政策制定者预计电价上涨将导致消费率降低。然而，在提价之后，分析师报告了它们没有产生什么影响。用户的行为方式是网格工程师无法预期的。总体而言，本文显示了各种行为者如何进行“边界工作”，也就是说，他们如何在产生主力的同时在政治，财务和技术之间设置限制。本文探讨了这种边界工作如何帮助稳定海湾合作委员会中特定的能源安全社会技术假想，从而掩盖了与石油以外的未来相关的焦虑。