There are 3,200 utilities that make up the U.S. electrical grid, the largest machine in the world.
These power companies sell $400 billion worth of electricity a year, mostly derived from burning fossil fuels in centralized stations and distributed over 2.7 million miles of power lines.
Regulators set rates; utilities get guaranteed returns; investors get sure-thing dividends.
It’s a model that hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.
(Business Week, 8/2/2013)
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