How Electricity Generation Really Works

Continuing the series on the power grid by diving deeper into the engineering of large-scale electricity generation.

The importance of electricity in our modern world can hardly be overstated. What was a luxury a hundred years ago is now a critical component to the safety, prosperity, and well-being of nearly everyone. Generation is the first step electricity takes on its journey through the power grid, the gigantic machine that delivers energy to millions of people day in and day out. So how does it work?

Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse

This video is sponsored by Hello Fresh.

[PracticalEngineeringChannel]

There’s a lot more to the discussion here, so let me know into which topics you’d like to go deeper in future videos. Thanks for watching!

[stachowi]

As an electrical engineer, you literally explained what took my professors weeks (and they really didn’t) in 10 minutes, you’re amazing

[ericasw]

Electrical engineer here, and this topic has been my job for about 15 years now.
Everything you said is brilliantly illustrated and on point.
Kudos to you !
I'd happily replace "renewable" at the end by "durable", but that's a subject for another day :)
Bravo again !

[jomiar]

It is rare to see a video that explains so many technical concepts in such a simple way without heavy bias or opinion mixed in. I'm super impressed, Grady!

[Maniac]

Despite my reservations about nuclear, I find it vexing that everyone seems to forget that nuclear doesn't emit co2.

[BjornCanute]

I hate the term renewable energy as it excludes nuclear energy from the start. Using conventional fuel sources nuclear can power us for centuries and with unconventional fuels like thorium or plutonium in fast spectrum reactors can powers us for thousands of years, and yet the fact that this nuclear fuel is not renewed by the big nuclear fuel in the sky somehow makes it undesirable,

[elischultes]

My dad was talking to a engineer at a hydroelectric plant. He was told the hydroelectric plant is the easiest/efficient place to adjust grid following because of the static reserve of water. Others loose efficiency on warm up and cool down.

[stevenvandenbroucke]

I have to say, your effort of presenting ads at the end of the video is great! Feels natural and not forced, great work!

[leoaso]

"We can't hold it in our hand" Technically we can... it's letting go that's the problem.

[slowgaffle]

Thank you for these videos. I've always wondered how they store all the electricity and I'm really taken aback by the answer, "they don't". It really puts a lot of the issues with zero emissions electricity into perspective, and really makes me have respect for the people who make this infrastructure work so seamlessly.

[rohant]

On the topic of sustainability and since many countries are experiencing water crisis, can you do one on desalination and/or reverse osmosis?

And garbage, waste management, waste to energy, capturing carbon in the chimney. So fascinating

[carlospulpo]

Great video, perhaps explain why it is so difficult for power production to go back online once a major interruption occurs. For example the 2003 blackout, This is when that coordination between the grid operators is critical, also black-start capacity.

[ProfessorPesca]

I’ve expanded my knowledge of electricity generation about 10x during the course of this video. I’ve never understood what 3 phase meant, but it’s explained here in about 10 seconds in a clear way. Thanks.

[JB]

As a mechanical engineer I always had trouble understanding electricity thank you for breaking down this complex topic into an easy way to learn!

[taniaphillips]

I've been watching this series on the power grid and in this past week parts of Western Australia have been SMASHED by brutal storms. Kalgoorlie was so badly hammed the news were talking about city being without power for weeks, (most power is back up with Generators) Transmission towers down, trees on lines, over all a real mess, the news has not explained the extent of the damage in Kal, only given highlights if you will. Because of this series I better understand the challenges facing Western Power and the herculean effort they have gone to get most of an outback city powered again and why they have had to bring in so many generators. Why they can’t just switch the power back on, thank you for educating me and others and giving us a better understanding of how complex the grid is.

[simonpule]

I found these videos extremely interesting while I was in high school. Now that I'm in college for engineering, it makes these videos even more interesting than they were before! Great work again!

[thrownchance]

3:30 another advantage of using AC is that switching it off is far easier than with DC.

[Arzada]

I’m an Operating Engineer in Canada, I’ve worked in nuclear, natural gas(currently in cogeneration), and biomass plants. And I love this video, keep up the amazing videos!

It might be neat to show how some plants try to squeeze the most efficiency out of our systems, such as use of combined cycles and heat recovery steam generators. Or anything really when it comes to the Rankine Cycle.

[alejandrorubio]

Love it! I spent a few seasons around 2004 as a grid/engine operator at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and this is a perfect explanation of our fairly simple system. No steam generation tho; just diesel engines powering turbines directly. At the time, the equipment was from the 60's and so syncing the frequencies to bring on a fresh engine meant eyeing a synchroscope and making sure your hand was steady! Thanks for another great video!

[frollard]

Edit incorrect: It's a neat addendum that power plants require utterly MASSIVE banks of resistors (load) to get the generator up and running in sync 'at load' prior to switching over from startup to online. Just getting it up to voltage and matched frequency will cause a big problem when the real load hits the coils (as demonstrated with the brushless motor)...You need to spin it up while simulating the load it is expected to face on the grid, then match the grid, then cut over. It has to happen quickly because dumping megawatts (very plural) into a resistor is a good recipe to boil the dump bank!

Excellent video as always!