Abstract :
This spring I published an article in MIT´s Technology
Review magazine, Edison´s Revenge: The Rise of DC Power, predicting that dc
might once again flow through the power distribution grids that deliver electricity
to power consumers. It is an improbable scenario in the view of many power
engineers, so I half expected some blowback. The most colorful response I
received, however, was a note from a Canadian engineer who had reason to question
the seemingly unimpeachable presumption that dc had long since disappeared
from the distribution scene.