SYSTEMS : ELECTRICITY How important is electricity to us? Where does it come from?

How important is electricity? Electricity figures everywhere in our lives. Imagine if you had no electricity for ONE WHOLE DAY. –No television –No computer –No lights at night –No fans/air-conditioning –Unable to cook food, etc., etc.

Where do we get our electricity from? There are several sources of electricity but I will focus on the power generator. An electric generator is a device for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process is based on the relationship between magnetism and electricity. When a wire or any other electrically conductive material moves across a magnetic field, electricity flows in the wire.

POWER GENERATORS This generator is based on the principle of “electromagnetic induction” discovered in 1831 by Michael Faraday, a British scientist. To make electricity therefore, we need to somehow keep turning the coil of wire. The normal way is to use a turbine which is a fan in reverse (Wheel and axle)

POWER GENERATORS But what turns the turbine then? Wind generators are probably the easiest type of power station to understand. (Windmills) Advantages : Damages the environment very little Disadvantages: Unsightly Produce a lot of noise Rarely built in inhabited areas – power must be transmitted long distances and power is lost. Wind is not controllable and not always available.

POWER GENERATORS The next easiest to understand type of power station is the hydroelectric station. Here the turbine is driven by moving water rather than moving air. Advantage: Turned on very quickly, within seconds, sudden increase in supply of electricity Renewable resource Disadvantage: Depends on where the river is and again long transmission distance

POWER GENERATORS The third and by far the most important way of driving the turbines is steam. In a power plant, there are big boilers that burn a fuel to make heat so that steam is produced when the water has boiled. The steam is then piped to the turbine through very thick pipes. The steam is fed under high pressure to the turbine which spins and its shaft is connected to the turbogenerator. First disadvantage is that a lot of CO2 is produced.

POWER GENERATORS

The question next is what is burnt to produce the heat. The fuel used is usually wood, coal, oil or natural gas. These fuels are the remains of plants and animals that lived million of years ago. It takes many years to form and cannot last forever. Such fuel is non- renewable. Once they are gone, they’re gone. So, new ways of heating water using renewable resources are constantly being thought of and used.

POWER GENERATORS Nuclear power plants use nuclear energy to heat water. (small amounts of extremely hazardous waste) Geothermal power plants use steam or hot water found naturally below the earth’s surface without burning a fuel. Hydroelectric power stations uses flowing water to spin the turbine. Solar power, wind power, tidal energy or biomass are also used. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

WEBSITES TO VISIT FOR MORE INFORMATION Much of the information in these slides have been extracted from the following websites: (how power stations work) Please go to the above websites for more detailed information about electricity.