DC power
From dKosopedia
DC power was the original plan for power distribution. The problem with this scheme is that the greater the distance from the generator the more power is lost to i2r losses, i.e., the loss of energy as heat is a product of the square of the amount of electrical current and the resistance of the wire. The more wire is involved, the higher is the resistance. So, unless one could cool the entire length of a transmission cable and make the cable of special super-conductivity material, each time you doubled the distance from the generator you would double the amount of energy lost to heat. Super-conductivity with currently available technologies is not a real solution either, since it would use immense amounts of energy to refrigerate the transmission cable.
As soon as AC power was invented, it threatened the commercial interests of the DC power companies. Despite their extremist attempts to discredit AC power (e.g., by showing pictures of electrocutions of animals by high voltage AC currents), the simple economic advantage of being able to provide service to large land areas from a single generator doomed the DC power industry.
With the invention of power cells, which produce DC power, it becomes possible to conceive of a system by which small generators could provide service to single high-rise buildings, small collections of houses within limited areas, etc.
The effects to living creatures of living within the electromagnetic fields of AC transmission lines is still under investigation.