DC Versus AC: The Second War of Currents Has Already Begun [In My View]

This spring I published an article in MIT's Technology Review magazine, Edison's Revenge: The Rise of DC Power, predicting that dc might once again flow through the power distribution grids that deliver electricity to power consumers. It is an improbable scenario in the view of many power engineers, so I half expected some blowback. The most colorful response I received, however, was a note from a Canadian engineer who had reason to question the seemingly unimpeachable presumption that dc had long since disappeared from the distribution scene.