The 21st century will be defined by the future evolution and role of the global electric power sector in driving economic development and reducing poverty, while also achieving climate stability and energy security. This course has two interconnected objectives: First, to explore how innovations in the electric power sector could provide access to electricity services for about a quarter of the world’s population, or about 1.5 billion people, living mainly in peri-urban or rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and currently deprived of such services. The search for future solutions will be anchored in an understanding of the electric power sector in Brazil, China, India and South Africa; Second, to examine how the North American and European electric power grids could be transformed in the 21st century to address national and global imperatives such greenhouse gas emissions reduction, petroleum substitution, and the creation of a smart, robust and resilient power infrastructure. This course stresses the role of electricity as a pivotal factor in social and economic development, and examines options for universal electrification in the developing world, as well as options for the future evolution of the power grid in the US and other advanced developing nations. It is a good complement to the “Global Electricity Marketsâ€ù course, which focuses on the historic evolution of electric power through the present and associated policy making tools, with a particular focus on the electric power industry in the United States.