Learn more about electricity production from the U. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. Electricity in the United States often travels long distances from generating facilities to local distribution substations through a transmission grid of nearly , miles of high-voltage transmission lines.
Generating facilities provide power to the grid at low voltage, from volts V in small generating facilities to 22 kilovolts kV in larger power plants. Once electricity leaves a generating facility, the voltage is increased, or "stepped up," by a transformer typical ranges of kV to kV to minimize the power losses over long distances. As electricity is transmitted through the grid and arrives in the load areas, the voltage is stepped down by substation transformers ranges of 69 kV to 4.
All-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles represent a new demand for electricity, but they are not likely to strain much of our existing generation resources in the near term.
Large increases in the number of these vehicles in the United States will not necessarily require the addition of new electricity-generation capacity depending on when, where, and at what power level the vehicles are charged.
Demand for electricity rises and falls, depending on time of day and time of year. Electricity production, transmission, and distribution capacity must be able to meet demand during times of peak use; but most of the time, the electricity infrastructure is not operating at its full capacity.
According to deployment models developed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL , the diversity of household electricity loads and EV loads should allow introduction and growth of the PEV market while "smart grid" networks expand. Smart grid networks allow for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and sensing along transmission lines through smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources, and energy efficient resources.
Hydropower uses the power of flowing water to create electricity. It is a clean and renewable resource from which Canada creates most its electricity. Because of its flexible storage capability and operational flexibility, we can depend on hydro continuously.
Video courtesy of Student Energy :. Nuclear power comes from a nuclear fission process that generates heat, which is used to generate the steam that rotates the turbines to generate electricity. Coal is an abundant and inexpensive energy source with a long history.
Natural gas, a fossil fuel found in underground reservoirs, emits approximately half the carbon emissions of coal when used to produce electricity. Burning organic materials produces high-pressure steam that drives a turbine generator to make electricity. The extracted steam from the power plant can also be put to use. Turbines capture kinetic energy from wind and convert it into electricity.
The amount of energy is determined by the speed of the wind. Ontario has the largest wind market in Canada, with 2, wind turbines and 4, MW of installed capacity. Wind is a renewable source of energy that has relatively little impact on the surrounding area, apart from aesthetic and noise concerns. Cogeneration is when waste heat from electricity generation is recovered and used for applications, such as space heating and cooling, water heating, and industrial process heat. Two technologies harness solar energy.
Tidal power is created when tides rotate submerged turbines. The resulting energy is converted into electricity. Geothermal generation is concentrated in regions that are volcanically and tectonically active.
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