WHAT IT IS?
Electricity, in simple terms, is just the flow of charges through any medium which is mostly through conductors, semiconductors and rarely through insulators. The most common example of flow of charge through an insulator is LIGHTNING. During lightning, charges flow through air, which is an insulator.
WHY WE NEED IT?
It's a silly question to answer!! But, we must know it.
Like all other forms of energy, electrical energy has its own uses. Today, electrical energy is used in each and every sphere of our lives. It is the backbone of the modern industrial development. Each and every machine around us is electricity operated. Even the vehicles nowadays, are electrically driven and they use electricity in stored form. Without electricity, we feel as if something very important from our lives is missing. From a bulb to a modern industrial equipment, everything is electricity operated. We live in a fast-paced world where, power and energy are the major pillars of development. We cannot imagine our future development in the absence of these two factors.
HOW IT IS MADE?
The generation of electricity is done in power stations, which can be a Thermal, Hydroelectric, or a Nuclear power station. These different type of power stations use different types of fuels as their input.
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| IMAGE OF A GENERATOR AT A POWER STATION |
- A Thermal power station uses coal or natural gas for the production of electricity. The heat produced by burning of these fuels is used to convert water into steam which drives the turbines of the generator to produce electricity.
- A Hydroelectric power station uses hydro energy for electricity production. For this purpose, dams are built on the water bodies like rivers, lakes etc. The energy of the flowing water of these rivers is stored by the dams by stopping it. This water is then released on the turbines whenever electricity generation is desired.
- A Nuclear power station uses nuclear fuels like uranium to convert water to steam to drive the turbines of generator for electricity production.
PROCESS OF ENERGY PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
The machine used to convert the mechanical energy of turbines to electrical energy is called generator. The electricity generated at power stations is then supplied to the various substations which distribute the energy according to the requirement. In this way, electricity is generated and distributed.
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| ENERGY PRODUCTION IN THE WORLD BY DIFFERENT SOURCES |
IN THE FUTURE....
Today most of our electrical energy production is dependent upon conventional methods like coal, natural gas and hydro-energy. But the sources like coal and natural gas are depleting. They contribute to a major part of our energy production, but the irony is, we cannot use them forever. Thus, we need to find an alternative to this problem. And it is because of this reason only that, we are observing a shift from conventional to non-conventional sources.
Fortunately, we have our solution in one of the problems. Nuclear sources of energy have the capability for vast energy production but the problem is to find an effective way to control the nuclear fission and fusion reactions. Fusion reactions can produce energy million times(approximately) greater than that produced by coals today. But, it is uncontrollable. The research work is still on to find ways to this problem, because if we solved it, we could unlock the infinite source of energy generation!
Survival without energy is difficult and our future will be futuristic if and only if we generate surplus amount of energy, for which we need some great techniques like nuclear fusion. Along with this, what we need, are the equipment's which can harness electrical energy to its fullest!!
