Citizendia
Your Ad Here

An electric utility is a company (often a public utility) that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. A public utility (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the Infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical Energy to Electricity. Electricity distribution is the penultimate stage in the delivery (before retail) of Electricity to end users Electricity retailing is the final process in the delivery of Electricity from generation to the consumer A regulated market, or controlled market, is the provision of goods or services that is regulated by a government appointed body rather than by Supply and demand. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. In Physics and other Sciences energy (from the Greek grc ἐνέργεια - Energeia, "activity operation" from grc ἐνεργός Electricity is an integral part of life in the Developed world. The term developed country, or advanced country, is used to categorize countries with developed Economies in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments, homes, and even most recreational facilities. Lack of electricity causes not only inconvenience, but, also economic loss due to reduced industrial production.

Electric utilities include investor owned, publicly owned, cooperatives, and nationalized entities. See Investor AB for the Swedish investment company An investor is any party that makes an Investment. Public ownership (also called government ownership, state ownership or state property) refers to Government Ownership of any Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the Public ownership of a national government They may be engaged in all or only some aspects of the industry. Electricity markets are also considered electric utilities--these entities buy and sell electricity, acting as brokers, but usually do not own or operate generation, transmission, or distribution facilities. An electricity market is a system for effecting the purchase and sale of electricity using Supply and demand to set the price Utilities are regulated by local and national authorities.

Contents

Organization

Utility service territories are typically geographically distinct from one another. These territories may be set by regulation or by economics as the capital cost of reproducing infrastructure is usually prohibitive. Each territory is composed of different types of consumers, usually broadly described as either commercial, residential or industrial.

Tariff structure

Electricity consumers are divided into classes of service or sectors (residential, commercial, industrial, and other) based on the type of service they receive. Sectoral classification of consumers is determined by each utility and is based on various criteria such as:

Utilities typically employ a number of tariffs. The alternative tariffs reflect consumers' varying consumption levels and patterns and the associated impact on the utility's costs of providing the service.

Power Transactions

An electric power system is a group of generation, transmission, distribution, communication, and other facilities that are physically connected. The flow of electricity with the system is maintained and controlled by dispatch centers. It is the responsibility of the dispatch center to match the supply of electricity with the demand. In order to carry out its responsibilities, the dispatch center is authorized to buy and sell electricity based on system requirements. The interconnected utilities within each power grid coordinate operations and may buy and sell power among themselves. The bulk power system makes it possible for utilities to engage in wholesale (for resale) electric power trade. Wholesale trade has historically played an important role, allowing utilities to reduce power costs, increase power supply options, and improve reliability. Authority for those transactions has been pre-approved under interconnection agreements signed by all the electric utilities physically interconnected or with coordination agreements among utilities that are not connected.

See also

References

This article is about a Vehicle. For the historical British Regiment, see 11th Hussars. Distributed generation, also called on-site generation, dispersed generation, embedded generation, decentralized generation, decentralized Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical Energy to Electricity. Electric power transmission, a process in the delivery of Electricity to consumers is the bulk transfer of electrical power Electricity retailing is the final process in the delivery of Electricity from generation to the consumer Energy development is the ongoing effort to provide sufficient Primary energy sources and secondary Energy forms to meet civilization's needs A lineman (American English or linesman (British English (also occasionally called a lineworker or a line electrician) is a Tradesman who constructs In Electrical engineering, a load profile is a graph of the variation in the Electrical load versus time The term off the grid or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities In its broadest sense power quality is a set of boundaries that allows Electrical systems to function in their intended manner without significant loss of performance or life Voltage drop is the reduction in Voltage in an Electrical circuit between the source and load
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic