System Overview

Electric power systems are real-time energy delivery systems. Real time means that power is generated, transported, and supplied the moment you turn on the light switch. Electric power systems are not storage systems like water systems and gas systems. Instead, generators produce the energy as the demand calls for it. Figure 1-1 shows the basic building blocks of an electric power system. The system starts with generation, by which electrical energy is produced in the power plant and then transformed in the power station to high-voltage electrical energy that is more suitable for efficient long-distance transporta-tion. The power plants transform other sources of energy in the process of producing electrical energy. For example, heat, mechanical, hydraulic, chemical, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, and other energy sources are used in the production of electrical energy. High-voltage (HV) power lines in the transmission portion of the electric power system efficiently transport electrical energy over long distances to the consumption locations. Finally, substations transform this HV electrical energy into lower-voltage energy that is transmitted over distribution power lines that are more suitable for the distribution of electrical energy to its destination, where it is again trans- formed for residential, commercial, and industrial consumption. A full-scale actual interconnected electric power system is much more complex than that shown in Figure 1-1; however the basic principles, con-cepts, theories, and terminologies are all the same. We will start with the ba-
sics and add complexity as we progress through the material.