I was initially confused by the statement that direct current has lower transmission losses over long distances.<p>My recollection was that a big argument for AC over DC going back to Edison v Tesla was that DC required DC generation centers all over the place because of transmission range:<p>&quot;The primary drawback with the Edison direct current system was that it ran at 110 volts from generation to its final destination giving it a relatively short useful transmission range: to keep the size of the expensive copper conductors down generating plants had to be situated in the middle of population centers and could only supply customers less than a mile from the plant.&quot;<p>Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;War_of_Currents#Edison.27s_DC_company" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;War_of_Currents#Edison.27s_DC_...</a><p>Yet, it appears this is no longer the case. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-voltage_direct_current" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-voltage_direct_current</a><p>Why is that?