Electric charges and currents with their relative electromagnetic forces are no human invention! The entire material world, from the microscopic to the macroscopic structure, depends on the electric fields of static electric charges and on the electromagnetic fields produced by moving charges; such "fields" are the "binding forces" of the various components of matter itself.

Also the fundamental functions of living organisms are governed by electric potentialsof various kinds which allow for the "identification" of atomic and molecular structures and transmit electric and magnetic signals at different distances (dipolar structures,  membrane potentials, nervous signals, etc…).
The presence of "natural electricity" was discovered only two centuries ago....While Galvani was studying animal tissues he found the existence of animal electricity (fig. 1) and investigated the effects of natural electromagnetic forces at a distance (lightning). Meanwhile Volta was working on his pile (fig. 2).
Artificial electricity was born (even though electrostatic phenomena were already known).

Fig. 1: Galvani's experiments on animal electricity. (Credit: Dall'opera:"De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius")		Fig. 2: Volta's pile. (Credit: Teatro Fisico della Sapienza di Roma)

Only at the beginning of the 1900s, with Marconi's discovery, did the full phenomenal potential of electricity explode: long-distance signal broadcasting, "wireless telecommunication".

Electric power is very "convenient" as it is extremely versatile and is the least polluting energy in the place where it is used. In a short space of time it has quickened the pace of economical and social development so much that it has become a concrete indicator of a country's civilization.
Nowadays, electric energy is a real necessity: it drives all the systems that guarantee our well-being (heating, cooling, electrical appliances, lifts, trains, radio, television, mobile phones, radar systems, laser, all the appliances for diagnosis and therapy).
Energy consumption continues to increase, imposing faster and faster rhythms of production and distribution.
This means a progressive increase in the impact on the local and global environment (greenhouse effect, atmospheric and architectural pollution). Among today's most urgent objectives we can highlight "system optimizations", minimizing energy loss and providing better services, all the while keeping a check on exposure levels.