The problem for places like New York or Cleveland or Chicago (but not necessarily for Appleton) was that there were many potential uses for electricity, each with a specific voltage need. Direct current, which is what all grids ran until about 1886 and most grids ran well into the early years of the twentieth century, uses an inflexible voltage set at the dynamo. If a grid is using direct current, then a streetcar simply cannot be run using the same generator or set of wires as a string of lightbulbs.
