The work discusses historical and technical events in USA and Europe over the last few years that are aimed at modernizing the electric power grid. The US federal government has ratified the "smart grid" as official policy for modernizing the electricity grid with provisions for timely information and control options to consumers and deployment of "smart" technologies. European countries are unified in researching and developing related technologies through various structures supported by the European Union. This paper presents the development of smart grids and in-depth analysis of the methodologies, milestones and expected evolutions of grid technologies that will transform our society in the very near future.