Building a supergrid for Europe

When asked to reflect on the life of Thomas Edison for a New York Times article on the inventor’s death in 1931, Nikola Tesla had few kind words to say about his former boss. ’His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 per cent of the labour.’

It was the final insult after a long-drawn-out public spat between the two men who were on opposing sides of the great AC/DC debate dubbed the ’War of Currents’ at the turn of the 20th century.

By all accounts Tesla had emerged the winner with his crowning achievement, the Niagara generation project. Backed by his commercial partner George Westinghouse, Tesla was the first to harness the Falls’ potential to generate hydroelectric power through his alternating-current plant, which began transmitting electricity to New York industries in 1896. Tesla had demonstrated that a directcurrent power network - Edison’s chosen option - would never be economical because DC was too difficult to transmit over long distances. Tesla was right at the time, but the ghost of Edison may finally have a chance to prove him wrong.