No longer were electric utilities built as vertical monopolies, where generation, transmission and distribution were handled by a single company. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required transmission line owners to allow electric generation companies open access to their network and led to a restructuring of how the electric industry operated in an effort to create competition in power generation. In 1934, with the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (USA), electric utilities were recognized as public goods of importance and were given outlined restrictions and regulatory oversight of their operations. In the United States in the 1920s, utilities formed joint-operations to share peak load coverage and backup power.
This started operating as a national system, the National Grid, in 1938.
The Central Electricity Board standardized the nation's electricity supply and established the first synchronized AC grid, running at 132 kilovolts and 50 Hertz. The Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 led to the setting up of the National Grid. The bill was the first step towards an integrated electricity system. Merz was appointed head of a parliamentary committee and his findings led to the Williamson Report of 1918, which in turn created the Electricity (Supply) Act 1919. In the United Kingdom, Charles Merz, of the Merz & McLellan consulting partnership, built the Neptune Bank Power Station near Newcastle upon Tyne in 1901, and by 1912 had developed into the largest integrated power system in Europe. Historically, transmission and distribution lines were owned by the same company, but starting in the 1990s, many countries have liberalized the regulation of the electricity market in ways that have led to the separation of the electricity transmission business from the distribution business. After the war of the currents was settled in favor of AC power, with long-distance power transmission it became possible to interconnect stations to balance the loads and improve load factors. In the 1880s electric lighting soon became advantageous compared to gas lighting.Įlectric utility companies established central stations to take advantage of economies of scale and moved to centralized power generation, distribution, and system management. But gas lamps produced poor light, wasted heat, made rooms hot and smoky, and gave off hydrogen and carbon monoxide. In the industrialized world, cities had networks of piped gas, used for lighting. Coal gas was first produced on customer's premises but later evolved into gasification plants that enjoyed economies of scale. In the 1880s, electricity competed with steam, hydraulics, and especially coal gas. Įarly electric energy was produced near the device or service requiring that energy. Particular concerns relate to the more complex computer systems needed to manage grids. Also as electric grids modernize and introduce computer technology, cyber threats start to become a security risk. Įlectrical grids can be prone to malicious intrusion or attack thus, there is a need for electric grid security. About 840 million people (mostly in Africa) had no access to grid electricity in 2017, down from 1.2 billion in 2010. As electrification increases, the number of people with access to grid electricity is growing. The combined transmission and distribution network is part of electricity delivery, known as the " power grid" in North America, or just "the grid." In the United Kingdom, India, Tanzania, Myanmar, Malaysia and New Zealand, the network is known as the National Grid.Īlthough electrical grids are widespread, as of 2016, 1.4 billion people worldwide were not connected to an electricity grid. This allows transmission of AC power throughout the area, connecting a large number of electricity generators and consumers and potentially enabling more efficient electricity markets and redundant generation. Grids are nearly always synchronous, meaning all distribution areas operate with three phase alternating current (AC) frequencies synchronized (so that voltage swings occur at almost the same time).
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