Electrical grid
An electrical grid (or electricity network) is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids consist of power stations, electrical substations to step voltage up or down, electric power transmission to carry power over long distances, and finally electric power distribution to customers. In that last step, voltage is stepped down again to the required service voltage. Power stations are typically built close to energy sources and far from densely populated areas. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. From small to large there are microgrids, wide area synchronous grids, and super grids.
For other uses, see Grid (disambiguation).
Grids are nearly always synchronous, meaning all distribution areas operate with three phase alternating current (AC) frequencies synchronized (so that voltage swings occur at almost the same time). This allows transmission of AC power throughout the area, connecting the electricity generators with consumers. Grids can enable more efficient electricity markets.
The combined transmission and distribution network is part of electricity delivery, known as the "power grid" in North America, or just "the grid." In the United Kingdom, India, Tanzania, Myanmar, Malaysia and New Zealand, the network is known as the National Grid.
Although electrical grids are widespread, as of 2016, 1.4 billion people worldwide were not connected to an electricity grid.[1] As electrification increases, the number of people with access to grid electricity is growing. About 840 million people (mostly in Africa), which is ca. 11% of the World's population, had no access to grid electricity in 2017, down from 1.2 billion in 2010.[2]
Electrical grids can be prone to malicious intrusion or attack; thus, there is a need for electric grid security. Also as electric grids modernize and introduce computer technology, cyber threats start to become a security risk.[3] Particular concerns relate to the more complex computer systems needed to manage grids.[4]
Functionalities[edit]
Demand[edit]
The demand, or load on an electrical grid is the total electrical power being removed by the users of the grid.
The graph of the demand over time is called the demand curve.
Baseload is the minimum load on the grid over any given period, peak demand is the maximum load. Historically, baseload was commonly met by equipment that was relatively cheap to run, that ran continuously for weeks or months at a time, but globally this is becoming less common. The extra peak demand requirements are sometimes produced by expensive peaking plants that are generators optimised to come on-line quickly but these too are becoming less common.
However, if the demand of electricity exceed the capacity of a local power grid, it will cause safety issue like burning out.[31]
Voltage[edit]
Grids are designed to supply electricity to their customers at largely constant voltages. This has to be achieved with varying demand, variable reactive loads, and even nonlinear loads, with electricity provided by generators and distribution and transmission equipment that are not perfectly reliable.[32] Often grids use tap changers on transformers near to the consumers to adjust the voltage and keep it within specification.
Trends[edit]
Demand response[edit]
Demand response is a grid management technique where retail or wholesale customers are requested or incentivised either electronically or manually to reduce their load. Currently, transmission grid operators use demand response to request load reduction from major energy users such as industrial plants.[39] Technologies such as smart metering can encourage customers to use power when electricity is plentiful by allowing for variable pricing.
Distributed generation[edit]
With everything interconnected, and open competition occurring in a free market economy, it starts to make sense to allow and even encourage distributed generation (DG). Smaller generators, usually not owned by the utility, can be brought on-line to help supply the need for power. The smaller generation facility might be a home-owner with excess power from their solar panel or wind turbine. It might be a small office with a diesel generator. These resources can be brought on-line either at the utility's behest, or by owner of the generation in an effort to sell electricity. Many small generators are allowed to sell electricity back to the grid for the same price they would pay to buy it.
As the 21st century progresses, the electric utility industry seeks to take advantage of novel approaches to meet growing energy demand. Utilities are under pressure to evolve their classic topologies to accommodate distributed generation. As generation becomes more common from rooftop solar and wind generators, the differences between distribution and transmission grids will continue to blur. In July 2017 the CEO of Mercedes-Benz said that the energy industry needs to work better with companies from other industries to form a "total ecosystem", to integrate central and distributed energy resources (DER) to give customers what they want. The electrical grid was originally constructed so that electricity would flow from power providers to consumers. However, with the introduction of DER, power needs to flow both ways on the electric grid, because customers may have power sources such as solar panels.[40]
History[edit]
Early electric energy was produced near the device or service requiring that energy. In the 1880s, electricity competed with steam, hydraulics, and especially coal gas. Coal gas was first produced on customer's premises but later evolved into gasification plants that enjoyed economies of scale. In the industrialized world, cities had networks of piped gas, used for lighting. But gas lamps produced poor light, wasted heat, made rooms hot and smokey, and gave off hydrogen and carbon monoxide. They also posed a fire hazard. In the 1880s electric lighting soon became advantageous compared to gas lighting.
Electric utility companies established central stations to take advantage of economies of scale and moved to centralized power generation, distribution, and system management.[56] After the war of the currents was settled in favor of AC power, with long-distance power transmission it became possible to interconnect stations to balance the loads and improve load factors. Historically, transmission and distribution lines were owned by the same company, but starting in the 1990s, many countries have liberalized the regulation of the electricity market in ways that have led to the separation of the electricity transmission business from the distribution business.[57]
In the United Kingdom, Charles Merz, of the Merz & McLellan consulting partnership, built the Neptune Bank Power Station near Newcastle upon Tyne in 1901,[58] and by 1912 had developed into the largest integrated power system in Europe.[59] Merz was appointed head of a parliamentary committee and his findings led to the Williamson Report of 1918, which in turn created the Electricity (Supply) Act 1919. The bill was the first step towards an integrated electricity system. The Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 led to the setting up of the National Grid.[60] The Central Electricity Board standardized the nation's electricity supply and established the first synchronized AC grid, running at 132 kilovolts and 50 hertz. This started operating as a national system, the National Grid, in 1938.
In France, electrification began in the 1900s, with 700 communes in 1919, and 36,528 in 1938. At the same time, these close networks began to interconnect: Paris in 1907 at 12 kV, the Pyrénées in 1923 at 150 kV, and finally almost all of the country interconnected by 1938 at 220 kV. In 1946, the grid was the world's most dense. That year the state nationalised the industry, by uniting the private companies as Électricité de France. The frequency was standardised at 50 Hz, and the 225 kV network replaced 110 kV and 120 kV. Since 1956, service voltage has been standardised at 220/380 V, replacing the previous 127/220 V. During the 1970s, the 400 kV network, the new European standard, was implemented. The end user service voltage will progressively change to 230/400 V +/-10% since may 29, 1986.[61][62]
In the United States in the 1920s, utilities formed joint-operations to share peak load coverage and backup power. In 1934, with the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (USA), electric utilities were recognized as public goods of importance and were given outlined restrictions and regulatory oversight of their operations. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required transmission line owners to allow electric generation companies open access to their network[56][63] and led to a restructuring of how the electric industry operated in an effort to create competition in power generation. No longer were electric utilities built as vertical monopolies, where generation, transmission and distribution were handled by a single company. Now, the three stages could be split among various companies, in an effort to provide fair access to high voltage transmission.[20][21] The Energy Policy Act of 2005 allowed incentives and loan guarantees for alternative energy production and advance innovative technologies that avoided greenhouse emissions.
In China, electrification began in the 1950s.[64] In August 1961, the electrification of the Baoji-Fengzhou section of the Baocheng Railway was completed and delivered for operation, becoming China's first electrified railway.[65] From 1958 to 1998, China's electrified railway reached 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometres).[66] As of the end of 2017, this number has reached 54,000 miles (87,000 kilometres).[67] In the current railway electrification system of China, State Grid Corporation of China—Archived 2021-12-21 at the Wayback Machine—is an important power supplier. In 2019, it completed the power supply project of China's important electrified railways in its operating areas, such as Jingtong Railway, Haoji Railway, Zhengzhou–Wanzhou high-speed railway, et cetera, providing power supply guarantee for 110 traction stations, and its cumulative power line construction length reached 6,586 kilometres.[68]