Ever since Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla battled it out during the War of the Currents in the late 19th century, electricity has been a central part of life in America. We are constantly connected to the power grid, which keeps our food refrigerated, our homes heated, our computers running and our rooms lit. Power lines, transmission stations and power plants have become a part of the landscape -- to the point that we hardly notice them.
But have you ever really thought about the complex system that generates electricity, carries it across miles of transmission lines and then delivers it to your home?
As you can see in the infographic above, our power grid is a network of power plants, substations, transformers, wires, sensors and poles that carry electricity sometimes hundreds of miles to be distributed to our homes, schools and offices.