Today, 130 years later, electricity is still transforming people’s lives when it first reaches them, bringing colourless, smokeless, weightless energy into the home. One recent study in the Philippines estimated that the average household derives $108 a month in benefits from connecting to the electricity grid – cheaper lighting ($37), cheaper radio and television ($19), more years in education ($20), time saving ($24) and business productivity ($8). Heck, it even affects the birth rate as television replaces procreation as an evening activity.
