The ants can be guided as far as necessary by a long trail of breadcrumbs. At the far end, another hair-wire will collect the individual charges into a bank of super-capacitors used to run a system of pumps that will pump water uphill into a reservoir at the bottom of which is a large balloon that drives compressed air into turbines which generate power for the local area.

The beauty of this system is that it is easily scalable: should you need more power, just add more anthills and breadcrumbs. Columns of marching ants are notoriously hard to stop or reroute once established and will repair themselves in the event of disaster (tornado / air attack / battle re-enactment etc). They are also immune to nuclear war.