This integration of audio, text, interactive maps, photos and hyperlinks is journalism finding a voice in the current world.

The first of a 10-part series on the U.S. energy grid, this sets up what looks to be an in-depth and impressive report.

One of the more important issues for all of us to become familiar with at this time. Hopefully a 10 part piece will give it real indepth coverage with a wide variety of considered views.

Obviously NPR has no memory of the massive Northeast and Canada blackout of the early 1960s ('63 I think). And clearly electricity providers have had no particular incentives to think modern - good grief, they can't even keep the power on in a bad ice storm! This is one more disaster in the making that has been around for years with no attention paid until something really bad happens - and then the attention lasts a couple of weeks if we're lucky.

This is an interesting but insufficient article. How is the potentially variable supply from solar and wind different from the variable demand? It's the variable difference that counts, and the capacity of the grid to deliver when the demand is greatest. What about transmission losses? Will upgrading the grid make the system more efficient?