Editing Electrification (section)

===Historical cost of electricity===
Central station electric power generating provided power more efficiently and at lower cost than small generators. The capital and operating cost per unit of power were also cheaper with central stations.<ref name=Devine83/> The cost of electricity fell dramatically in the first decades of the twentieth century due to the introduction of [[steam turbines]] and the improved load factor after the introduction of AC motors. As electricity prices fell, usage increased dramatically and central stations were scaled up to enormous sizes, creating significant economies of scale.<ref>{{cite book |title=Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences |last=Smil |first=Vaclav |year=2006 |location=Oxford, New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/transformingtwen00smil/page/n43 33] |isbn=978-0-19-516875-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/transformingtwen00smil |url-access=limited}} (Maximum turbine size grew to about 200 MW in the 1920s and again to about 1000 MW in 1960.  Significant increases in efficiency accompanied each increase in scale.)</ref>  For the historical cost see Ayres-Warr (2002) Fig. 7.<ref name="fraw.org.uk">{{cite web |author1=Robert U. Ayres |author2=Benjamin Warr |title=Two Paradigms of Production and Growth |url=http://www.fraw.org.uk/files/economics/ayres_2001.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502195703/http://www.fraw.org.uk/files/economics/ayres_2001.pdf |archive-date=2013-05-02}}</ref>