Although the Federation's power grid was considered basic infrastructure, it was not built and operated by designated companies or individuals.
Anyone could build their own power grid.
In some remote areas, there might be nothing more than a small village with a limited population, where someone had bought a generator.
If they could not use all the electricity it generated, they could set up their own power pole, string up some wires, and provide electricity to others.
The same was true in every state and county.
When electrical equipment had first begun to appear, the power grids in almost every city had been extremely chaotic.
It was only after the emergence of the big capitalists that some uniformity gradually appeared.
The emergence of these big capitalists was not exactly a friendly development. They used their abundant capital to compete with local and private power grids.
Either the local or private power grids sold themselves to them at extremely low prices,
or they would lay down an entirely new power grid and use viciously competitive methods, such as providing low-priced electricity to the public, to crush all their competitors.
Most local and private power grids ultimately fell to this competition that hurt others at their own expense.
The power grid throughout the entire Federation was also monopolized by capital groups.
At the time, it was roughly divided into three parts.
The first was the Northern Power Grid, the second was the Southern Power Grid, and the third was the Central Power Grid.
Capital was never satisfied. In the end, the Central Power Grid was broken up, and the Federation entered the era of the two major power grids.
If not for the enactment of the Anti-Monopoly Law, it might eventually have evolved into a completely monopolistic institution—the Federal Power Grid! Fortunately,