There's been no shortage of news coverage of the power crisis in California and the Bush administration's energy policy. Still, all those articles have managed to miss a key part of the story: how the electric power grid actually works, and what effect new technology might have on the shortages that already beset California and are imminent in other parts of the country. Like the air traffic system or the telephone system, the power grid remains one of those gigantic human constructions that lurk in the background of policy controversies but never make it into the light of day. Technology Review is changing that.

Peter Fairley's meticulously reported story in this issue ("A Smarter Power Grid,") offers an introduction to the tangle of wires that carries the juice from where it's generated to where it's consumed. The grid was built half a century ago and served us well for decades, but it hasn't aged well. Particularly since the rapid deregulation of the power production industry in the last decade, the grid has become overburdened and fragile, prone to temperamental displays and dramatic funks.