Economists, energy experts, and policymakers have called for accelerating investment in the U.S. electricity transmission network. Additional transmission lines could better integrate markets, reducing the total cost of electricity generation. They could also allow for the better integration of...

The birth of the grid, 1899 to 1918 -- Contests for control, 1918-1934 -- Balancing reliability and economy, 1930-1940 -- Power transformations on the home front, 1935-1950 -- Nuances of control in an increasingly interconnected world, 1945-1965 -- Drifting "lazily" into synchrony, from blackout...

Since the 1990s, efficiency and benchmarking analysis has increasingly been used in network utilities research and regulation. A recurrent concern is the effect of environmental factors that are beyond the influence of firms (observable heterogeneity) and factors that are not identifiable...