Transmission lines in Lund, Sweden

The electrical power industry provides the production and delivery of electrical power (electrical energy), often known as power, or electricity, in sufficient quantities to areas that need electricity through a grid. (lɵnd is a city in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. The town has 76188 inhabitants out of a muncipal total of 105000 "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Electric energy is the potential energy associated with the conservative Coulomb forces between Charged particles contained within a system, where Electric power transmission, a process in the delivery of Electricity to consumers is the bulk transfer of electrical power Many households and businesses need access to electricity, especially in developed nations, the demand being scarcer in developing nations. The term developed country, or advanced country, is used to categorize countries with developed Economies in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors Developing countries are countries that haven't reached Western-style standards of democratic government free market economy industrialization social programs and human rights guaranties Demand for electricity is derived from the requirement for electricity in order to operate domestic appliances, office equipment, industrial machinery and provide sufficient energy for both domestic and commercial lighting, heating, cooking and industrial processes. Refrigerator1svg|left|100px]]A major appliance, or domestic appliance, is usually defined as a large Machine which accomplishes some routine housekeeping task which Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in Offices by Businesses and other organizations from private citizens to governments For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" A machine is any device that uses Energy to perform some activity Because of this aspect of the industry, it is viewed as a public utility as infrastructure. A public utility (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the Infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using Infrastructure typically refers to the technical structures that support a society such as Roads Water supply, Wastewater, Power grids

The electrical power industry is commonly split up into four processes. These are electricity generation such as a power station, electric power transmission, electricity distribution and electricity retailing. Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical Energy to Electricity. A power station (also referred to as generating station, power plant or powerhouse) is an industrial facility for the generation of Electric power transmission, a process in the delivery of Electricity to consumers is the bulk transfer of electrical power 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 In many countries, electric power companies own the whole infrastructure from generating stations to transmission and distribution infrastructure. For this reason, electric power is viewed as a natural monopoly. Natural monopoly is a term used in Economics to refer to two different things The industry is generally heavily regulated, often with price controls and is frequently government-owned and operated. This article is for the legal term For regulation of genes see Regulation of gene expression. A government-owned corporation, state-owned enterprise or government business enterprise is a legal entity created by a Government to undertake commercial The nature and state of market reform of the electricity market often determines whether electric companies are able to be involved in just some of these processes without having to own the entire infrastructure, or citizens choose which components of infrastructure to patronise. An electricity market is a system for effecting the purchase and sale of electricity using Supply and demand to set the price In countries where electricity provision is deregulated, end-users of electricity may opt for more costly green electricity. Green energy is a term used to describe sources of energy that are considered to be Environmentally friendly and non- polluting.

Generation

Main articles: Electricity generation and Energy development

All forms of electricity generation have positive and negative aspects. Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical Energy to Electricity. Energy development is the ongoing effort to provide sufficient Primary energy sources and secondary Energy forms to meet civilization's needs Technology will probably eventually declare the most preferred forms, but in a market economy, the options with less overall costs generally will be chosen above other sources. Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt A market economy is a realized Social system based on the Division of labour in which the prices of Goods and Services are determined in a It is not clear yet which form can best meet the necessary energy demands or which process can best solve the demand for electricity. There are indications that renewable energy and distributed generation are becoming more viable in economic terms. Renewable energy is Energy generated from Natural resources mdashsuch as Sunlight, Wind, Rain, tides and geothermal Distributed generation, also called on-site generation, dispersed generation, embedded generation, decentralized generation, decentralized A diverse mix of generation sources reduces the risks of electricity price spikes.

History

Power lines in Suffolk England in twilight

Transmission lines in Romania Of which the nearest is a Phase Transposition Tower

Although electricity had been known to be produced as a result of the chemical reactions that take place in an electrolytic cell since Alessandro Volta developed the voltaic pile in 1800, its production by this means was, and still is, expensive. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania An electrolytic cell decomposes chemical compounds by means of electrical energy in a process called Electrolysis; the Greek word Lysis means to break up Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was a Lombard physicist known especially for the development of the first electric cell in A voltaic pile is a set of individual Voltaic cells placed in series In 1831, Michael Faraday devised a machine that generated electricity from rotary motion, but it took almost 50 years for the technology to reach a commercially viable stage. Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English In 1878, in the US, Thomas Edison developed and sold a commercially viable replacement for gas lighting and heating using locally generated and distributed direct current electricity. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Direct current ( DC) is the unidirectional flow of Electric charge.

The world's first public electricity supply was provided in late 1881, when the streets of the Surrey town of Godalming in the UK were lit with electric light. Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. Godalming is a town in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, seven kilometres (four miles south of Guildford. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This system was powered from a water wheel on the River Wey, which drove a Siemens alternator that supplied a number of arc lamps within the town. The River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to Alternating current electrical energy This supply scheme also provided electricity to a number of shops and premises.

Coinciding with this, in early 1882, Edison opened the world’s first steam-powered electricity generating station at Holborn Viaduct in London, where he had entered into an agreement with the City Corporation for a period of three months to provide street lighting. Holborn Viaduct is a bridge in London and the name of the street which crosses it (which is a section of the A40) London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. In time he had supplied a number of local consumers with electric light. The method of supply was direct current (DC).

It was later on in the year in September 1882 that Edison opened the Pearl Street Power Station in New York City and again it was a DC supply. The City of New York It was for this reason that the generation was close to or on the consumer's premises as Edison had no means of voltage conversion. The voltage chosen for any electrical system is a compromise. Increasing the voltage reduces the current and therefore reduces resistive losses in the cable. Electrical tension (or voltage after its SI unit, the Volt) is the difference of electrical potential between two points of an electrical Electric current is the flow (movement of Electric charge. The SI unit of electric current is the Ampere. Unfortunately it increases the danger from direct contact and also increases the required insulation thickness. "Electrocute" redirects here For the band see Electrocute (band. An insulator, also called a Dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of Electric current. Furthermore some load types were difficult or impossible to make for higher voltages.

Additionally, Robert Hammond, in December 1881, demonstrated the new electric light in the Sussex town of Brighton in the UK for a trial period. Sussex is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. Brighton ( is a town on the south coast of England and with its neighbour Hove, forms the city of Brighton and Hove. The ensuing success of this installation enabled Hammond to put this venture on both a commercial and legal footing, as a number of shop owners wanted to use the new electric light. Thus the Hammond Electricity Supply Co. was launched. Whilst the Godalming and Holborn Viaduct Schemes closed after a few years the Brighton Scheme continued on, and supply was in 1887 made available for 24 hours per day.

Nikola Tesla, who had worked for Edison for a short time and appreciated the electrical theory in a way that Edison did not, devised an alternative system using alternating current. There have already been discussions about Tesla's ethnicity on the talk page An alternating current ( AC) is an Electric current whose direction reverses cyclically as opposed to Direct current, whose direction remains constant Tesla realised that while doubling the voltage would halve the current and reduce losses by three-quarters, only an alternating current system allowed the transformation between voltage levels in different parts of the system. A transformer is a device that transfers Electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled Electrical conductors This allowed efficient high voltages for distribution where their risks could easily be mitigated by good design while still allowing fairly safe voltages to be supplied to the loads. He went on to develop the overall theory of his system, devising theoretical and practical alternatives for all of the direct current appliances then in use, and patented his novel ideas in 1887, in thirty separate patents.

High tension line in Montreal, Canada

In 1888, Tesla's work came to the attention of George Westinghouse, who owned a patent for a type of transformer that could deal with high power and was easy to make. George Westinghouse Jr ( 6 October 1846 &ndash 12 March 1914) was an American Entrepreneur and Engineer Westinghouse had been operating an alternating current lighting plant in Great Barrington, Massachusetts since 1886. Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. While Westinghouse's system could use Edison's lights and had heaters, it did not have a motor. With Tesla and his patents, Westinghouse built a power system for a gold mine in Telluride, Colorado in 1891, with a water driven 100 horsepower (75 kW) generator powering a 100 horsepower (75 kW) motor over a 2. "Gold mine" redirects here See Goldmine for other uses of the term The Town of Telluride is a Home Rule Municipality that is the County seat and the most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern 5-mile (4 km) power line. Electric power transmission, a process in the delivery of Electricity to consumers is the bulk transfer of electrical power Almarian Decker finally invented the whole system of three-phase power generating in Redlands, California in 1893. Almarian William Decker (b 1852 Ohio d Aug 1893 Sierra Madre California interred Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery was an American pioneer of Electrical engineering involved This article deals with where how and why "three phase" is used Then, in a deal with General Electric, which Edison had been forced to sell, Westinghouse's company went on to construct a power station at the Niagara Falls, with three 5,000 horsepower (3. The Niagara Falls are massive Waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario 7 MW) Tesla generators supplying electricity to an aluminium smelter at Niagara and the town of Buffalo 22 miles (35 km) away. WikipediaNaming See also Niagara Falls (disambiguation. Niagara is a Town in Niagara County, New York, United States Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. The Niagara power station commenced operation on April 20, 1895. Events 1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII. Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year

Tesla's alternating current system remains the primary means of delivering electrical energy to consumers throughout the world. While high-voltage direct current (HVDC) is increasingly being used to transmit large quantities of electricity over long distances or to connect adjacent asynchronous power systems, the bulk of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retailing takes place using alternating current. HVDC or high-voltage Direct current Electric power transmission systems contrast with the more common Alternating current systems as a means Asynchrony, in the general meaning is the state of not being synchronized.

Market reform

There has been a movement towards separating the monopoly parts of the industry, such as transmission and distribution sectors from the contestable sectors of generation and retailing across the world. This has occurred prominently since the reform of the electricity supply industry in England and Wales in 1990. In some countries, wholesale electricity markets operate, with generators and retailers trading electricity in a similar manner to shares and currency. Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical Energy to Electricity. Electricity retailing is the final process in the delivery of Electricity from generation to the consumer In financial markets, a share is a Unit of account for various financial instruments including Stocks Mutual funds Limited partnerships A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of Goods and/or services It is one form of Money, where money is

See also

References

• Robert Lomas, The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity, (1999) Headline, London ISBN 0-7472-7588-2. The skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the
• Daniel J. Shanefield, Industrial Electronics for Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians, (2001) SciTech Pub, Norwich, NY ISBN 0-8155-1467-0
• The Graphic, 12 November 1881. Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days Year 1881 ( MDCCCLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
• Godalming Council Minutes, 1881 - 1884.
• P. Strange, "Early Electricity Supply in Britain: Chesterfield and Godalming", IEEE Proceedings (1979).
• D. G. Tucker, "Hydro-Electricity for Public Supply in Britain", Industrial Archaeology Review, (1977).
• B. Bowers, A History of Electric Light & Power, Peregrinus (1982).
• T. P. Hughes, Networks of Power, Johns Hopkins Press London (1983).

External links

• Learn about the electric power industry
• Compare Energy Providers