Delaney Hall

A couple years ago, in the summer of 2023, I was in Phoenix doing some reporting.

And that summer turned out to be the hottest on record, not just for Phoenix, but for the entire planet.

For 31 days, from the end of June until the end of July, temperatures exceeded 110 degrees.

Saguaros were dropping dead from heat exposure.

People were spending days and then weeks inside.

Playgrounds were empty because the playground equipment would burn a kid's skin.

And what struck me walking around the city during that time was how totally dependent Phoenix is on air conditioning.

Everywhere you went, every building was cooled to the temperature of a refrigerator.

And it was an enormous relief to walk into one of those crisp buildings after struggling through the hot air outside.

No matter where you live, the electrical grid is essential infrastructure.

But in Phoenix, it's not an overstatement to say that the city cannot exist without it.

If power goes out in the summertime, if all those air conditioners cannot run, people will die.

Which made me wonder, how does the city know how much energy they'll need to provide on the hottest summer days?

I'm Delaney Hall, and this is Service Request, a show from 99% Invisible and Campside Media.

Each episode, we investigate a question about infrastructure, the vast and hidden machinery of modern life.

We're looking at the pipes, the wires, the systems beneath your feet that you never really think about until they stop working.

Today, I'm submitting a service request.

What an excellent question.

And the answer takes us into the enormous and complex machine that sends us our power.

She wrote a book called The Grid.