The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era

by Gretchen Bakke

Unlike the trusts held by Standard Oil or U.S. Steel that attempted to control the entire U.S. market there were many electric companies—they simply never overlapped. In this way, the term “monopoly” took on a very particular meaning when speaking of power projects; despite the fact that there were numerous players in the market there was no competition between them because the market itself had been divided into quadrants, the borders of each enforced by a political apparatus designed largely for that purpose. In this the utilities bore a certain resemblance to modern-day street gangs whose territorial agreements, hashed out albeit with submachine guns rather than governmental subcommittees, sport a similar structure. One simply doesn’t offer one’s product in territory claimed by someone else. Prices are fixed by the provider and the structures of power in place brook no complaint.