Imagine a day without electricity! Irritating! disgusting!! and you feel so much helpless. Picking up your phone and gadgets and suddenly you remember "Oh! there is no electricity" It's disheartening right? We shout, blame the provider but don't try to understand why our loads are being shaded. To grab an idea, let's try to understand how the generated electricity is at our door; the concept of Grid System.
What is Grid?
You must have seen generators in shops, complexes, offices, markets, etc. When the electricity is out, they are used to provide a backup. But where is the generator that provides electricity to the whole country? Is there only one generator or several? The answer is, there are numerous generators connected together to serve the country. And the way they are connected to each other and to the users' end is known as grid. Therefore, grid is an interconnected network with different components working together.
How does grid works?
As we all know there are 3 blocks of operation generating station to users' end i.e. Generation, Transmission, Distribution. Let's discuss one by one.
☛ Generation: Electrical energies are generated, actually not generated but transformed from other sources (water, coal, gas, nuclear, etc.) by mechanical means.
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| Hydro-electric Power Plant |
There are numerous power plants all over the country like this. The output from these stations are connected to different nodes create a common energy bus. The transmission system starts from here.
☛ Transmission: The generated electricity is stepped up to a higher potential of about 33 KV through transformers for transmitting to a long-distance without a severe drop in the transmission line.
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| Transmission |
☛ Distribution: These high voltage transmission wires end in substations outside the towns. There, with the help of step down transformers, the potential is stepped down to 11 KV Again they are stretched to the substations inside the town and stepped down to 220 V (3 phase 4 wire), and then single-phase supply is provided to the houses. The three-phase supply (11 KV) is given to the industries on demand.
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| Power system |
This diagram shows the entire system from producer to consumer. And the entire network with all these components is called Grid. All the generating stations contribute to the grid and also work as a backup for other stations. Many interesting topics are related to this grid. Or do you think it's so simple as stated above!
When I studied Grid System, a number of questions came in my mind that why it is necessary to interconnect so many generators together? Can't a single generator serve the purpose? And why different countries have separate grids? Why not a single grid is created all over the world that connects all the countries?
Do you also have these questions in your mind? If so, stay with us and find your answers.
Image Source:
* Circuit Globe
* Giphy
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