Ready for a paradigm shift? Not since the invention of the horseless carriage and the electric light bulb have Americans faced such radical changes in how they travel or power their homes. In years to come, skyrocketing gasoline prices could pressure citizens to either buy electric cars or use public transportation. The migration away from fossil fuels to renewables also will mandate new ways to deliver power to customers, including setting up âmicrogridsâ of neighborhoods â areas of the city that would be largely isolated from the chief network and protected against outages caused by a major storm or some other event.