Electric Grid: From Power Plants to Homes
Explore power plants, substations, transmission lines, and shifting demand as one network.
Electricity cannot be stored
Start at the power stations. The first thing to hold onto is that the grid has no inventory. You cannot stack electricity in a warehouse and take it out when needed. The moment someone flips a light switch, a generator somewhere is doing that much more work. A water system has reservoirs; electricity has almost nothing equivalent. So the grid runs under a slightly unreasonable condition: production and consumption must match continuously.
Take in the whole run from generation to homes and confirm there is nowhere to store anything.
The grid is not only a transport network. It is a machine for matching supply to demand every second.
See the starting point where power made at the plant enters the step-up substation.
Read generation, transmission, substation, distribution, and demand as one connected map.
Solar joins in, and supply from the local side becomes visible.
Every section is available and demand and supply are balanced and stable.
The 3D view is synced to this scenario’s recommended phase and layer.
Voltage and load stay within limits, and the flow on the lines is even.
The control centre fine-tunes generation and batteries to the demand forecast.