The Grid — The Largest Machine Ever Built

There's a machine that beats precisely 60 times a second. You flip a light switch in your kitchen, and the whole system feels it — a turbine a thousand miles away feels the drag of your light bulbs.

In the US, we built this miraculous system not through some grand design, but through a century and a half of decisions with unforeseen consequences. For most of the journey, it's been an economic miracle. But right now, the system is in crisis — and for the first time in decades, we're asking the grid to grow significantly.