How Electricity Is Delivered To Our Home

When I'm a student this is the basic topic that we always tackle about how electricity works or how does electricity is delivered to our home. Many times when we don't know the answer, every time there is a brown out or black out we tend to blame etc. without knowing that the main cause is from the source of electrity for that to be not ignorant about this topic,

The Discovery Of Electricity
From Generators, Tranmission Grid, Distribution, Subtransmission,Distribution, and low voltage which is in our home.


How Electricity is Made
Before we even start with how electricity is generated and transported to your house, we need to define what electricity is. Think of electricity as water flowing through a pipe or garden hose. The water is really electrons in the metal that makes up the wire.

Centre For Energy
After electricity is generated, it has to be moved to customers that use the electricity. This involves two basic steps: transmission moving electricity at high voltages from generating plants to local communities and distribution moving power to individual customers.




How is Electricity Provided to Your Home?
The system consists of high voltage lines and towers that spread from the east coast to
the west coast. You can think of it as the main trunk of a tree.


Electricity Is Delivered to Consumers Through a Complex NetworkThe origin of the electricity you consume may vary. Utilities may generate all the electricity they sell using just the power plants they own. Utilities may also purchase some of their supply on the wholesale market from other utilities, power marketers, independent power producers, or from a market based on membership in a regional transmission reliability organization.


Delivered from Power Plant To You
From the power plant, large cables (transmission lines) suspended on steel poles, wood poles, or steel towers, carry the current to substations. Here the voltage (pressure) is lowered in steps and fed into a distribution system. Smaller transformers provide the proper voltages for industries, stores, homes and farms.



Electricity Generation and Distribution.

Electricity comes from many sources, Water (Hydro), Wind, Solar, and the more traditional methods of Gas, Coal, Nuclear and Oil (there are others but there contribution to the world output is quite miminal).

The Renewable sources I will mention later as they again only form a small part in the contribution to world output.

The traditional ways of providing electricity are what I'm going to focus on Coal, Gas, Nuclear and oil.

Below is a somewhat traditional overview of our electrical supplies:

1. Generating Station

2. Step up transformers in a substation.

3. Transmission of Electricity via Pylons.

4. Step Down transformers in a substation.

5. Distribution by cables to our homes.

1. Generating Station - Where the electricity is made

They come in all shapes and sizes from the large (Drax In Selby) to the Small (North Sea gas fired power stations by the North Sea Coast)

In common they all have a Turbine and use Steam to drive the turbine at a speed of 3000 revolutions per minute (3000/60=50Hz), the size of the turbine does vary from the Huge to the Small.

Most of the electricity in the United Kingdom is produced in steam turbines. A turbine converts the kinetic energy of a moving fluid (liquid or gas) to mechanical energy. Steam turbines have a series of blades mounted on a shaft against which steam is forced, thus rotating the shaft connected to the generator. In a fossil-fueled steam turbine, the fuel is burned in a furnace to heat water in a boiler to produce steam. Coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas are burned in large furnaces to heat water to make steam that in turn pushes on the blades of a turbine.

2. HV Transformers - Step up the Voltage

The transformer at this point is there to step up the voltage from Low Voltage to High voltage.

The transformer allows electricity to be efficiently transmitted over long distances. This makes it possible to supply electricity to homes and businesses located far from the electric generating plant.

The electricity produced by a generator travels along cables to a transformer, which changes electricity from low voltage to high voltage. Electricity can be moved long distances more efficiently using high voltage. Transmission lines are used to carry the electricity to a substation.

3. Transmission Lines - Connecting Substations

Here in the UK you cannot go very far with out seeing Electricity pylons, these pylons are linked together with cables and form the National Grid, where electricty is transferred between hundreds of Substations and networks

4. Substations - Step down the Voltage

Substations have transformers that change the high voltage electricity into low voltage electricity.

5. Final connection - Homes and offices

From the substation, distribution lines carry the electricity to homes, offices and factories, which require low voltage electricity, these can be via smaller pole style pylons or underground cables which is the more favoured way.

In all it's a fascinating way to produce something that the eye cannot see and we cannot do without, most things in our homes need power and there it is how to generate and distribute electricity