I've always wondered as to how the power grid works, and distributes electric power to our homes and buildings for heating, lighting, cooking, and so much more! Power is an extremely important source that meets our needs for everyday tasks. Therefore, after lots of researching, I wanted to present some important processes and steps that occur in power distribution grid systems to better understand how the grid works in general! Lets go: Electric power is delivered to our homes via the power grid (aka electric grid). Well, what exactly does 'power grid' mean? The power grid is a complex system that supplies electricity from the power producers (generators) to homes, businesses, and buildings (the consumers). The system is comprised of stations, substations and transmission/distribution lines. The power grid is made up of three main components:
A simple representation of the power grid system. 1. Power GenerationIn order to supply and distribute power, we need to be able to generate it first. The power generation step uses different forms of energy sources to produce electricity! The first law of thermodynamics says "Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transformed or converted frome one source to another." Therefore, we need to transform one source of energy into electric energy to generate electrical power! One way to generate electricity is to use turbines and generators to convert kinetic energy to electrical energy. A turbine is a rotational device that uses a source's kinetic energy for rotational motion. A source is used to turn the turbine, which in turn rotates the coil of copper wires in a magnetic field. This is in the electric generator. From Michael Faraday's laws, if you move a coil of copper wire in a magentic field, an electric current is produced! The faster the coil of wire moves, the more electric energy is produced! This mechanical movement produces the electricity we need to distribute across hundreds and thousands of miles! Any source can be used to move the turbine; for instance, wind, gas, steam, or hydroelectric turbines exist to generate electricity. There are many different forms of electricity generation, from petroleum, nuclear, renewable, natural gas to coal! The following figure shows a statistic from the years of 1950-2019, and displays the number of kilowatthours produced changing over time. From the U.S. Energy Information Administration, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php 2. Transmission LinesOnce the electricity is produced, its time to transmit the power to our homes. Before we get to that step, we need to ensure that the electrical energy loss is minimized as the electric current travels over long distances. The higher the current, the more energy loss occurs due to the heating in the wire. Therefore, we need some way to reduce the current, and at the same time, maintain the power. As per this equation, since power is constant, by increasing the voltage, the current reduces. Therefore, there needs to be some sort of mechanism to increase the voltage, therefore reducing the current. This is done by a step-up transformer. A step-up transformer increases the voltage, while a step-down transformer decreases the voltage. Once the step-up transformer has increased the voltage, the power is transmitted to different substations and distribution centers (electric facilities) via transmission lines. Transmission lines are used to carry and transmit the power over long distances. 3. Distribution Lines
4. Power to safely use at homeThe final step of this system are homes, buildings and businesses receiving the power safely at an appropriate voltage level for use. The electricity reaches our homes' by passing through the service panel, where it connects to all of the appliances and loads in the home! :) This is meant to be a quick and short intro on power grids. I know power is something we take for granted, and I think learning about how the system works to meet our needs is an extremely important thing! :) SourcesSome fascinating resources that helped me out during research!
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Ok so first off, please excuse this very cringe-worthy border, but I couldn't be more excited to announce that I'll be starting my very own building series!!! So essentially, every week, I'm going to be filming short tutorial like videos on building cool projects (such as a digital to analog converter, robots to help with your day-to-day activities, or even programming projects..etc.) and posting them on the "#buildwithRushi" page (on the menu). The first "episode" will be out on the 25th of April, and I'll most likely be continuing to post a new tutorial every Saturday! But it'll be very very fun!! Hope y'all enjoy it and be sure to look out for updates on the page every Saturday! I'm providing a little sneak peak of what I'll be building on this post, but I'll be explaining and demo-ing it using my Arduino UNO board on the buildwithRushi page! Check it out then!! Ok anyways, lets get back to business. Lately, I have been really interested in sound systems. Not just because I have been listening to music all day lol, but because I really really want to know what is behind a speaker, and how it converts digital bits of information (like 0s and 1s) to analog waves. Its just insane to think about how some sort of electronic system can transform bits of information to the cool sounds we heard through our headphones. How does this happen tho? It is all because of a Digital to Analog converter, or a DAC. What is a Digital to Analog Converter?A digital to analog converter is a system where a digital signal is converted to an analog signal. DACs are found in sound systems such as CD players, or sound cards (to hear your computer's audio). Audio signals are stored in digital form (MP3, for example), and a DAC converts it into an analog signal for us to hear it. Now, there was a time where we actually didn't really need a DAC. This was when the analog signals were created when the needle of the record player made contact with the record grooves. It would cause an electric analog signal, which was then transmitted to the speaker, so we could hear it. How does a DAC work?
I'll get into more details about DAC functionalities next Saturday, April 25th! Lets goo! Stay safe, stay home, contribute, and wish you happiness and peace!
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