In American, Thomas Edison designed and built the first direct current (DC) power plant in 1882.
Then the first alternating current (AC) power plant opened in 1885 and transmitted power 200 miles from the plant.
By 1927, forty-five years later, the first power grid was established in Pennsylvania.
However, it wasn’t until 1933 that Congress passed legislation establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority, which now produces 125 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
Then in 1935, FDR issued an executive order to create the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to bring electricity to millions of rural Americans.
It took six years after the REA was launched in 1941 to help 800 rural electric cooperatives to string 350,000 miles of power lines.
Click on the link for America’s electrical grid and learn more about what it took to build the most extensive electric transmission system in the world— that is until China completes construction of its electrical transmission grid.
The biggest difference between modern China and America in the 1950s is the size of the population.
America electrified a nation with a population of about 160 million people.
China has 1.3 billion, which is a daunting task.
Start with Turning on the Lights in China – Part 1 or discover Electricity is the Key
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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