-
Asked by directioners to Ant, Dan, Matt, Mike, Steph on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by onedirectionareamazing.
-
Anthony Hollingsworth answered on 15 Mar 2012:
thats a tough one, its pretty big! Im not an expert but the way I understand it is that all the big power plants (coal power and nuclear power and a few of the larger gas plants) are hooked up to a very very high voltage supergrid that streaches over the whole UK. These supply the “base load” which ensures theres always a decent amount of electricity flowing, then there are other smaller power plants like hydro electric from dams, wind farms and small gas powered turbines (a turbine is just something that spins to make the electricity move along your wires) are hooked up to local high voltage grids around the country and engineers monitor how much these extra bits need to supply to make sure the power from your plug is the same all over the country. After this level there are smaller grids that split off and go to your house at low voltage (240 volts). There are lots and lots of engineers all over the country constantly working on this every single day to make sure when you put in a plug you get nice clean power out! its a great job if your interested!
-
-
Dan Veal answered on 15 Mar 2012:
Well said Anthony, not sure i can do any better. The big huge power lines you see suspended in poles are usually very dangerous and very high voltage, and there are things called transformers close to your house that will take the high voltage power and like Anthony said lower it down to 240V (which is just the voltage that mains plugs you use every day use) so it’s safe to use in your home. I think the reason they transver electricity at such high voltages on suspended power lines is that it’s much more efficient over long distances, because you lose power by things like internal resistance of the wires in powerlines.
-
Mike Salter answered on 15 Mar 2012:
Awesome question – lots to cover! As Ant and Dan say, there are BIG power stations dotted around the country that supply most of our power. This power is sent over the grid using big high voltage transmission lines (you’ve no doubt seen the pylons around). Somewhere near your house there’ll be a sub-station, this then converts the power to a lower voltage using a transformer and sends it to your house.
The electricity wasn’t actually generated as these high transmission voltages – the voltage has to be increased using a step-up transformer. Initially this might sound a bit silly, we increase the voltage to send it over the transmission line and then we have to reduce it again at the other end. By using high voltage for the transmission lines we can increase the efficiency of the whole grid, and therefore less power is wasted.
When electricity travels along a wire it experiences a resistance, so the electricity loses energy. The longer the wire, the larger the resistance and the more energy is wasted. On the national grid, as we’re sending power across the country we could waste a lot of energy…BUT…the way the maths works, if we send the electrical power as a high voltage we lose less energy due to the resistance! Magic! (actually it’s not magic, let me know if you’d like me to explain how it works!)
Our electrical grid is actually quite old now, and whilst this method works great for the sort of power stations we have at the moment one of the big challenges facing renewable energy (wind, solar etc.) is how to combine it with our grid system.
-
Matt Maddock answered on 19 Mar 2012:
What more is there to say?! Well done guys 🙂
Since you’ve covered it so well, I’ll just point out that the electricity is carried along the wires by little goblins who keep it in sacks labelled “leccy”. When it rains they get a bit depressed, so they hum to keep their spirits up. That’s why, when you stand near a pylon in the rain, you can hear it buzzing and crackling – it’s tone-deaf goblins humming!*
*This is not true. As far as I know.
Comments