Electricity Journey

Is Mother Nature important? Yes, Mother Nature gives us non-renewable and renewable sources like Fossil Fuels from inside of the earth, Hydro Power from water when it rushes through, Wind of course from the wind, Geothermal from the heat inside of the earth, Solar energy from the sun, Biomass from the plants and Wave energy that is produced from the waves. Currently people predict that someday our non-renewable resources will go.  But with all of these complex ways you can make electricity, how does it become something that we use every day with the flick of a switch?   This explanation will describe the journey electricity takes from Mother Nature, to our homes.

Inside of a power plant is a generator. Fuels like Coal, Natural gas, Biomass and Uranium are used to heat the water until it produces steam which powers turbines and then this wonderful process generates our electricity and can be reused over and over again.

These power plants can’t be too close together so we have power lines, carried by tall towers to carry the electricity from a power plant to a substation, that you might wonder why they’re there and what they do.

When the power lines reach a substation which have transformers in them that can reduce the voltage so it is enough to power up all of our homes in a city or the whole country.

Just enough electricity has to be generated to our distribution lines which reaches our light switches. Too much or too little power, can crash the transmission system that could create a power outage or a blackout and this could affect the city if it did happen.

Some cities that usually have power like New York or such have been struck by an unfortunate hurricane (Hurricane Sandy) and have ended up with no power.  It has been one week after the hurricane and some people in New York still have no power at all and it is one of the biggest cities in America. What would you do if you had no power?

After all the process the the electricity powers your mains box and your outputs that you can use to power your homes. If you think that it takes one person to make a lightbulb work, then you're wrong. This explanation shows just how complicated it really is just to power your homes.

By Tupou and Jayden