![]() Balancing those voltage loads is where power grid management becomes tricky, because the energy flow must be perfectly balanced at all times to provide exactly the right amount of electricity to customers. There are peak demand-load periods: at night when more lights are on, or the hottest or coldest times of day. ![]() The total usage by customers is the “demand load,” which must be supplied by power providers. When people use electricity for their lights, computers, appliances, heating and cooling they are drawing on the electrical grid. When the electricity reaches customers’ neighborhoods, transformers convert the high-voltage electricity to a lower voltage for distribution to homes and businesses. The higher the voltage, the less current needed for the same amount of power, and thus less loss of electricity (resistance to current in the lines creates heat that causes some loss). Typically, electricity is transmitted at a very high voltage over the power lines that dot the countryside. The network of transmission and distribution facilities makes up the power grid. (State Dept./Doug Thompson) Transmission and distributionĪfter electricity is generated, it must be transmitted and distributed to consumers. They are also cheaper, because they generate electricity closer to home, which means fewer long power transmission lines and other expensive grid infrastructure. That’s why renewable energy is so important: Sun, wind and other renewable resources are inexhaustible and clean. And nuclear power plants use the metal uranium which, like fossil fuel, is nonrenewable and can be a dangerous environmental pollutant. That’s a good thing, because fossil fuels release harmful greenhouse gases when they burn, which hasten global warming. Today there are more and cleaner options for energy generation. Once upon a time, electricity was generated only at central power stations, which usually ran off fossil fuels - coal or natural gas - or nuclear energy. The power grid starts in the places where electricity is made. Most people know that those are power transmission lines, but they may not know they are looking at part of the power grid. ![]() Everybody’s seen those tall towers strung with wires that stretch across the landscape. ![]()
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