When Thomas Edison turned on the generators at Pearl Street Station in New York City in 1882, his vision was to replace gas lighting with electricity. His grid was designed to power the light bulbs. It was simple, with one-way power flow, mechanical switches, and manual restoration. The humble beginnings of our U.S. power grid worked well for a time. Even then, the grid was a testament to human ingenuity and engineering.
Soon, electricity usage expanded beyond powering light bulbs, and as consumption increased, Edison’s direct current (DC) model was no longer the best solution. Though DC was the standard for electricity delivery, the system had a major flaw: it couldn’t supply power economically more than a mile from the power plant.
George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla advocated alternating current (AC) power to solve this issue. AC had the technical advantage. It could be transmitted over longer distances and converted from higher to lower voltages, enabling a broad, interconnected grid rather than a DC grid that relied on local power plants.
Edison refused to accept technological innovation and responded with lawsuits. Ultimately, the best technology for the application won, and today, our electrical grid is predominantly AC. Thus, the “War of the Currents” marked the grid’s first real evolution and changed the future of electricity.
Today, electricity is so much more than just powering a light bulb; it affects every aspect of our lives. Electricity is connectivity and vital health care. It’s transportation. It’s food, water, heating, and cooling. Yet, increasingly frequent, destructive, and expensive storms – most recent hurricanes Helene and Milton reportedly had an estimated GDP impact of roughly $50B each – are challenging the grid’s ability to keep the power on. The grid’s resilience is more important now than ever.
As our dependence on electricity grows rapidly, power outages have increasingly more significant consequences on our daily lives. Roughly 90% of outages today are caused by extreme weather, and 80% happen on the distribution grid, the last mile of power delivery. However, while distribution technology has evolved and become more intelligent, self-healing, and responsive, its significance for overall grid resilience has largely been ignored. Until now, most discussions and investments have focused on generation and transmission. That’s changing.
Federal funding has focused on enhancing grid resilience, and with 80% of outages happening on distribution – and 70% of these outages being temporary in nature (from branches or wildlife) – it’s where to invest in improving resilience. Today’s proven distribution grid technologies can reroute and self-heal power in seconds when a problem occurs. This keeps temporary faults from becoming sustained outages. These technologies automate and respond, bring intelligence, and improve reliability and resilience to electricity distribution. This supports a grid evolution that makes sustained power outages a thing of the past.
Our grid has come a long way since being designed to power light bulbs, and we can learn from its progress:
Technology Innovation
The War of the Currents was ultimately won by AC power, which proved better for new applications and load growth on an interconnected grid. To help build a grid that can handle the increasing challenges of severe weather and rapid load growth, adopt self-healing distribution grid technologies that are proven to advance a more resilient and reliable grid.
Invest for Resilience
Our grid is a complex, evolving system, and to support a future grid that is much more resilient, we need to look at the grid holistically. Utilities have invested in the grid for decades, but much of that investment was focused on generation and transmission. Remember that 90% of all outages are caused by severe weather, and 80% happen on the distribution grid. With extreme weather patterns increasing, investment in distribution grid technologies can provide immediate and long-term resilience, improve customer experiences, and reduce a storm’s economic (GDP) impact. For example, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) deployed a comprehensive strategy focused on reducing the impact of severe weather events and hurricanes to dramatically increase resilience, reliability, cost-savings, and customer satisfaction. After Category 4 Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2023, millions of Florida homes and businesses lost power. Within 24 hours, the utility restored power to nearly all its customers. Though it was a worse storm than in the years before investments, the outcomes were better because they focused on investing in grid resilience.
Prioritize Collaboration
Our power grid is a complex, interconnected system that benefits from coordination and collaboration between utilities, regulators, state and local governments, technology providers, and partners. To build the grid we need, stakeholders must work together to invest in and implement innovative distribution grid solutions that strengthen the grid's ability to withstand disruption.
The history of the U.S. power grid is one of innovation and technological progress, evolving from Edison’s Pearl Street Station to a complex, modern system that powers the nation. It is a continually evolving system, both in capacity and capabilities.
As we look to the future and focus on resilience, the grid will continue to evolve. With innovation, investment, and collaboration, we can transform the grid and build an outage-free, sustainable electrical energy future.
