Honey, I Shrunk The Grid: How Digital Technology Is Straightening Out The Power System's ‘Cable Spaghetti’

Electrical substations — the clusters of circuit breakers, transformers and switchgears that stick out of the ground like giant cattle prods — aren’t much to look at. What they lack in glamour, they make up for in sheer utility. Substations are the grid’s unsung heroes that toil in obscurity to keep our homes lit and phones charged. You might find one near a power plant, switching up the power generated by, say, a gas-burning facility into electricity that flows in high-voltage transmission cables to towns and cities.