We all are familiar with the electricity and we all encounter with it daily. Hardly there is a house where there is no electricity because all our work is based on electricity either we are at home, office, market or in any industry. Life without electricity would be dark or I should say that, life without electricity will be stopped.
We can observe this when there is a temporary failure in the continuous supply of electricity that the life suddenly stops. All the ongoing work gets a pause until the supply of electricity is again started. If the voltage of electricity gets down most of our activities are stopped in this situation then how would be the life without electricity?
What is electricity?
Before discussing the main topic, I wanted to tell you that what is electricity?
Electricity is that kind of energy which is in the form of charges and lights up our homes, offices and makes the life possible easily.
Electricity is basically the movement of charges from higher potential to lower potential. Electrons travel from high potential to low potential in an external circuit and this movement of electrons in an external circuit can be used to drive our machines and our daily routine work is done with the help of these moving charges known as electricity.
Image Credits: Image Taken from slides.com
Sources of Generation of Electricity
There are several ways of production of electricity are the electricity can be produced by several ways which are listed below
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Hydroelectricity
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Coal
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Gas
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Fuel
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Solar energy
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Wind Energy
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Nuclear power plants
Hydroelectricity
What is hydroelectricity?
A type of electricity which is produced by turning of a wheel by water is known as hydroelectricity
This is that type of electricity which is produced mainly by water now the question comes in our minds that how electricity can be produced by water. So answer to this question is that electricity cannot be directly produced by water rather it is produced by moving turbine with the help of water. Large amount of water is stored in the form of dams and large and heavy turbines are attached.
The water from a large height is made to fall on the turbine which rotates the turbine. That rotating turbine makes the generator to work and the generator starts producing electricity. This electricity can be transferred to the areas where electricity is needed. The complete process of supplying of electricity will be discussed later in this blog.
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Electricity from Coal
First of all, you must have the knowledge of coal.
What is coal?
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams.
Credits: Wikipedia
There are large deposits of coal in many countries which can be utilized to generate electricity. However this electricity will be cheap but this will cause too much pollution. The coal is burnt and heat is produced to warm the water this warmed or boiled water will be sent towards the turbine.
This boiled water or steam will rotate the turbine and the rotating turbine will produce electricity with the help of generator. Many countries in the world are using coal for the production of electricity as this is a cheap way of production of electricity but as I have said earlier that it will cause so much air pollution so this is not a permanent or suitable for the production of electricity.
There is also a fact that one day this coal will be finished so this is not the permanent way for the production of electricity.
Image Credits: Image Taken from iea-coal.org
Electricity from Gas
Natural Gas can also be used generate electricity. For this purpose the generators are used which work on gas. These large generators use gas as a fuel and give us electricity. So in this way natural gas cannot be directly used for the production of electricity rather it is used as a fuel to run the generators. Electricity can be easily transported from the gas power plants to the houses or factories.
Image Credits: Image Taken from power-eng.com
Electricity from Fuel
What is fuel?
Anything which burns is known as Fuel.
So, electricity can be produced with the help of any kind of Fuel like petrol diesel etc. Many countries have diesel or petrol power plants for the generation of electricity. These power plants use petrol or diesel or other Fuels for the working of generators these generators work on the principle of electromagnetic induction and give us electricity which can be transported or transmitter easily to the any part of the world.
Video Credits: Video Taken from Youtube
Electricity from Sun
Sun is the continuous source of energy, and we can easily use this energy for production of electricity. As the sun will shine forever so the electricity obtained from the sun or solar heat a permanent source of energy which means that our electricity demand can be easily full filled with the sun. In some parts of the world the sunshine with more heat and light they are capable of making a large amount of electricity with the heat of the sun.
For this purpose we use solar plates for the conversion of heat or light from the Sun into electricity and solar batteries which are used to store this electricity. From these batteries we can use electricity anywhere
Image Credits: Image Taken from sopan.co.in
Wind Energy
Electricity can also be generated with the help of wind. For this purpose, very large and tall fans are used in which turbines are installed. As the fans rotate with wind so the turbine rotates and electricity is produced.
These tall and large fans are mostly installed near the coastal areas where the winds blow strongly and there are strong air currents which can rotate these large fans. Electricity from wind is also renewable source as long as the wind is present on the earth.
Image Credits: Image Taken from wonderfulengineering.com
These were the few ways by which electricity is generated. Now the next step is the transportation of electricity.
Transportation of Electricity
Electricity is generated far away from its uses. It is generated near the dams, coastal areas, deserts and barren lands. It cannot be used there where it is generated and it cannot be generated there where it is used. Electricity is produced in the form of Direct Current known as DC, which is then converted into Alternating Current AC because DC cannot travel long distances and causes power loss.
Image Credits: Image Taken from shutterstock.com
Types of Currents:
There are two types of currents
- Alternating Current (AC)
- Direct Current (DC)
Alternating Current (AC)
Alternating Current or simply AC is the mostly used form of current. AC has a frequency of 50 hertz or more and changes its direction from up to down. Or we can say that AC has two directions which it changes in regular intervals of time. In Pakistan, it has a frequency of 50 hertz and changes its direction twice in a second.
This current can travel large distances that is why AC is used for the transportation of electricity from where it is generated to the places where it is needed. AC causes very small power loss that is why maximum amount of electricity can be transported using this form of current.
Image Credits: Image Taken from sunpower-uk.com
Direct Current (DC)
Direct Current or simply DC is not used as that much as AC is used. DC is used at very small places like homes. All our home appliances support DC current. So there are inverters which are installed in all the appliances which convert the AC coming from the power plants into DC and then our home appliances work.
DC cannot be transported to the large distances as it does not change its direction and causes a lot of power loss. It is used in short ranges. The electricity from the solar cells is DC which can be converted into AC by AC inverter.
Image Credits: Image Taken from slideshare.net
Transformers
Transformers are the very important tools in electricity. Without this device, it is impossible to transport and use electricity. These are very useful devices for controlling voltages and currents.
Types of Transformers
Step up transformer- Step down transformer
Step up Transformer
Step up Transformer is used for increasing of voltage of electricity. A voltage is produced at the power plant is not so high so to transfer the electric current through a large distances we need to increase the voltage level. For this purpose Step up Transformer is used for making the voltage high. Then it is made to transfer through long thick wires to the places where it is needed.
Image Credits: Image Taken from learningaboutelectronics.com
Step down Transformer
Step down Transformer is used to step down the voltage or lower the voltage which is coming from the power plant by step up transformer. The Step up Transformer increases the voltage up to so high value that it cannot be used directly in our homes.
To utilize or use current electricity we use step down transformers which lower the voltages and then this electric current is transferred to our homes by small or thin wires and we get benefits from this electric current.
Image Credits: Image Taken from rsel vam66
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