Appendix Today's world is unimaginable without electricity.
Electricity powers everything from coffee makers to computers.
Between 1949 and 1998 the U.S. population grew by 82 percent, but the amount of electricity sold by utilities grew by 1,200 percent, and today electricity use per person is six times higher than it was 50 years ago. At the point of use, electricity is a clean, flexible, controllable, safe, effortless and instantly available form of energy. Over the next 50 years virtually all of the equipment used to produce and consume energy will be replaced, and consumers now have a remarkable opportunity to influence the future of electricity. Until very recently, consumers had no choice in what company would provide their electricity. But this is changing rapidly.