Our electric grid is old and fraying, but new technology could insulate us from the possibility of...
What would you do if your electricity was suddenly cut? What if you didn't have power for days or weeks? What if no one in the city or the state you live in had any power either?
In February 2021, an electric grid failure in Texas caused more than 4.5 million homes and businesses to lose power.
What is the power grid exactly? And how might making it "Smart" help to protect us all from the shock of widespread power failure?
Power moves down that chain from generators to very high-voltage transmission lines, to lower-voltage distribution networks, to your outlets, lights and electric-vehicle-charging station.
Grid operators have to constantly monitor supply and demand to make sure they're equal: if there's an imbalance, it can end up damaging power plants.
With new energy sources such as wind and solar power, maintaining a steady balance gets even more complicated.
He pushed for an electric grid powered by alternating current, or AC, where power regularly flows back and forth across a line.
Because it was so expensive to build power plants and lines, state governments let power companies form monopolies over large areas in exchange for connecting everyone to the grid.
Many utilities started getting their power from more distant sources.
Smart grids may also incorporate new long-distance networks that use direct current-reversing the century-long dominance of AC. As engineers have found new ways to build high-voltage power lines, direct current has actually become more efficient over longer distances than before.