Power: Problems and progress: Despite difficulties, advances were notable in UHV and ac transmission, and energy-storage devices

During the past year, one got the feeling of déja vu; we had seen all this at least once before, hadn't we? But of course — the twin, interrelated energy-power pinch that hit us like an avalanche during the Arab oil embargo and its aftermath was still with us; only, perhaps now, a bit more intensified since OPEC raised the price of a barrel of crude about 15 percent last September. And the financial crunch being experienced by the power industry was quite thoroughly chronicled and documented in the March, April, and May issues of IEEE Spectrum. As Shakespeare put it in Macbeth: “Troubles come not as single spies, but in battalions.” Or so it seemed in view of some of the other developments.