Category Electricity

          The electrical sector of any country in the world depends mainly on its economic system, and policies adopted by its government.

          Hence, the whole process of power production and transmission in a country need not be the same as others. In some of them, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity are done by a government controlled organization. But in some others, privately owned companies will have shares too.

         Just like the operation, the voltage and frequencies for providing electrical power to appliances too, differ from country to country.

Continue reading “Why is it said that electricity distribution is different in every country?”

        The power sector of India is known to be one of the most diversified and powerful ones in the world. Sources of electricity generation here include conventional sources like coal, natural gas, oil, lignite, hydro and nuclear power, and also non-conventional sources like solar, wind, agricultural and domestic waste.

        The country has witnessed a very fast growth in electricity generation since 1990. In the year 2015, the country became a power surplus nation that possessed huge electric generation capacity. But many villages in India do not have power connection even now.

        By mid-2016, India’s power generation capacity crossed the 300,00 MW (megawatt) mark, including more than 42,848 MW renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power plants. This means, the country’s renewable energy sector is considered very important.

         About 65 per cent of the electricity produced in India is from thermal power plants. More than 20 per cent of the power comes from hydroelectric power plants and 3 per cent from nuclear plants. The rest is from alternate sources. 

          A power grid refers to an interconnected network for distributing electricity to consumers.

          It was in the 1960s that India began utilizing the grid management system on regional basis. The power grid system was then geographically divided into five regions for better management. These regions are – northern, eastern, western, north eastern and southern grids.

          They were established to enable the transmission of surplus electricity between states in each region.

          Towards the 1990s, the Indian government started planning for a national grid. As a result, the above mentioned regional grids were interconnected.

          In October 1991, the first interconnection was made, between the north eastern and the eastern grids. A few years later, in 2003, the western grid got connected with the above. This process followed in the later years as well. The northern grid was also interconnected in August 2006.

          In December 2013, the remaining grid- southern was connected to the central grid in a synchronous mode. Thus, the aim to build ‘One Nation – One Grid – One Frequency – was achieved.

           There are many reasons why renewable energy is important for the world and its future.

            The main advantage of these energies is that they are free of pollution. Renewable resources are way cleaner than fossil fuels because they don’t produce toxic wastes.

             Next, the reserves of these energies are never ending unlike coal, gas, oil or nuclear sources. Hence, they’re named renewables!

             Power production from fuels and other non-renewables demand a large-scale import of these resources at high prices. Also, their cost depends on the international market. In the case of renewable resources, it’s not needed as most of the energies depend on the Sun.

              There are many countries that depend largely on renewable resources. For instance, Denmark, UK, Scotland and Ireland make great use of wind energy.

              Denmark, which has been a pioneer in the field, gets around 42 per cent of its power from wind plants.

              And there are countries like China, and India that use of hydro power for electricity, which is equally safe.