Interestingly enough the Kingdom of Hawaii actually beat this. They already had electric street lights by 1881 on Maui.
Hawaii has a fascinating history being the first indigenous nation recognized by Western nations (until ofc it was illegally annexed by the US to use as a base during the Spanish War). They went from being one of the most technologically advanced nations to now having 50% of homeless people in Hawaii being native Hawaiians after having their land stolen from them and forced into indentured servitude on plantations
Fragmentation is natural. The human body doesnt need all this infra and a grid operator/energy schedules to run. Cells dont bill each other if they over/under generate ATP molecules. There is no deviation settlement mech and no need for everything to sync to some arbit frequency. Watch how the grid changes post Ukraine drone wars where taking out generators, transmission lines and substations has become a fully automated process.
> Stanley's system was however an experimental system designed to be proof of concept. It was short lived as the weak points in the system in the system eventually shut the system down (Westinghouse's steam engine was unreliable and the Siemens generator was 'unsatisfactory').
March 6th, 1886 Stanley lit the downtown and rejoiced along with the townspeople. The system lit both businesses and the street with 150, 50, and 16 candlepower incandescent lamps. Stanley remarked how people were happy however maintained some distance from the lights as they were afraid of them!
Hawaii has a fascinating history being the first indigenous nation recognized by Western nations (until ofc it was illegally annexed by the US to use as a base during the Spanish War). They went from being one of the most technologically advanced nations to now having 50% of homeless people in Hawaii being native Hawaiians after having their land stolen from them and forced into indentured servitude on plantations
https://www.edisontechcenter.org/GreatBarrington.html
They had growing pains but it was a grid system.