Lesson 6 ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION

Historical Perspective
A series of discoveries during the 18th and 19th centuries paved the road for the formation of todays electric power industry. Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive experiments on electricity in the 18 th century and around 1750 developed the concept of electricity as a fluid that flows when there is a difference in electric charge level. Later, Alessandro Volta's battery of 1800, made from alternating layers of zinc and copper, provided scientists with a reliable source of electrical energy. The unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, or electromagnetism, was recognized by Hans Christian Orsted and Andr-Marie Ampre in 1819-1820. Later Michael Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821, and Georg Simon Ohm found that direct current flows according to the relationship V(voltage) = I(current) x R(resistance) and that P(power) = I x V and mathematically analyzed the electrical circuit in 1827. When Michael Faraday invented the electric motor, there was no readily available source of power to run it and had therefore a limited use. Faraday later explained the inductive coupling between separate electrical conductors which led to the development of the theory of electromagnetic coupling. This theory, explains how mechanical motion can be converted to electricity, led to the development of practical motors and a wider understanding of alternating current. Kirchhoff formulated his circuit laws, which are now ubiquitous in electrical engineering, in 1845. James Clerk Maxwell in 1860s developed his equationsMaxwell's equationswhich demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and even light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. In 1880, Thomas Edison developed a commercially viable light bulb and turned out 50000 lamps in the first year of his company, Edison Lamp Works. Edison concentrated on commercial application, and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively long-lasting light bulbs and creating a complete system for the generation and distribution of electricity. In 1882, several power stations were opened in the US and the UK. The early invention of transformer, a device used to step up or step down voltage, in the 1830s produced a relatively inefficient system but the improved, efficient, and practical transformer designs did not appear until the 1880s1. About the same time Sir Charles Parsons invented the modern steam turbine, a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and converts it into rotary motion, in 1884. Up until then, plants ran off waterwheels in streams and hydropower from dammed rivers. Coal-fired power plants expanded the power production technology further by
1

Within a decade the transformer would be instrumental in the "War of Currents", and in seeing AC distribution systems triumph over their DC counterparts, a position in which they have remained dominant ever since. DVC/Seyyed Khandani/ENGIN130/FALL2012

generating steam that could be converted to mechanical energy that would run generators to produce electricity. Later on the first successful gas turbine was produced by Aegidius Elling in 1903. Power companies started to meter electricity and charge for electrical services by the turn of 19 th century. Subsequently electric cooking and heating were realized and commercialized. The electric washing machine appeared in 1918 and the electric refrigerators in 1919. Edison began the formation of the first power company in 1881 and on September 1882 switched on the world's first electrical power distribution system, providing 110 volts Direct Current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan. Edison's power network was based on low-voltage DC (110 V). Since transformers could not be used with DC, this low voltage meant large currents and serious power losses resulting in limiting transmission of electricity to a few miles. Subsequently many power stations needed to be installed at close proximity in order to minimize the power losses in transmitting power to the consumers. It also became the usual practice for industry to generate its own
energy as needed rather than buy more expensive energy from the generating companies. George Westinghouse later investigated Edison's scheme, but decided that it was too inefficient to be scaled up to a large size due to the inherent large power losses in transmission. He was in favor of Alternating Current (AC) system as this power system allowed voltages to be "stepped up" by a transformer for distribution, reducing power losses, and then "stepped down" by a transformer for consumer use. Westinghouse's promotion of AC power distribution led him into a bitter confrontation with Edison and his DC power system. The feud became known as the "War of Currents." Edison claimed that high voltage systems were inherently dangerous. Westinghouse replied that the risks could be managed and were outweighed by the benefits. Edison tried to have legislation enacted in several states to limit power transmission voltages, but failed. As AC came to be accepted, it became feasible to have large facilities to generate electricity. This led the many scattered power companies to the path of ever growing as utilities that we now know. Utilities traded competition for regulation by state Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs). By obtaining monopoly rights as public utilities, they were able to construct a single distribution network that covers the entire US continent. Since utilities are permitted profits as a fixed percentage of costs, expansion became an organic way to increase profit; expansion is typically associated with increased cost and therefore increased profit.

Power Generation Technology

From all the end-use electricity in the United States in 2008, 36% was consumed in the residential sector, 35% in the commercial, and 25% in the industrial sectors. The rest is consumed in transportation and primarily by direct use (i.e. the users generated their own electricity). Electric power industry in 2008 generated its electricity using a mix of fuels, see Figure 6.1. Coal, as the dominant fuel, accounts for 48% of all power plant input energy; natural gas is 21%, and fuel-oil and geothermal account for a small portion (5%). About 20% of the electricity produced comes from nuclear power stations and about 6% from hydroelectric power stations.
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About 40% of all primary energy consumed in the United States was used to generate electricity. More than 70% of this electricity came from the combustion of fossil fuels, which itself is responsible for three-fourth of the countrys emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2), one-third of its carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX), and one-fourth of particulate matter and toxic heavy metal emissions.

1978 (26.4 Quadrillion Btu)

Other Nuclear 11% 11% 11% 15% Petroleum 12% Natural Coal 39%

2008 (42.4 Quadrillion Btu)

Other Nuclear

Electric Power
Hydroelectric

Electric Power
Hydroelectric

5% 20% 6% 21% 48%

Coal

Power

Power
Natural

Gas

Gas

Figure 6.1 US Electric Power Sector Energy Consumption by Source

Source: EIA, Annual Energy Review 2008

The distribution of power plants based on fuel type is very uneven in the United States as shown in Figure 6.2. The Pacific Northwest generates most of its electricity at large hydroelectric facilities owned by the federal government. California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana drive a significant portion of their electricity from natural gas. Coal is the predominant source in the Midwestern and Southern states, particularly West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Note that in Figure 6.2 each large icon represents about 10 GW (gigawatts)2 of capacity and each small icon 5 GW.

Figure 6.2 Energy Sources for Electricity Generation by Region

Source: The Changing Structure of Electric Power Industry 2000: An Update (EIA 2000)
2

1 GW = 1000 megawatts (MW) = 1 billion watts DVC/Seyyed Khandani/ENGIN130/FALL2012

Knowing that the storage of large quantities of electric energy is difficult, utility companies try to respond to the consumer demand for electricity by producing exactly what is required at any moment. Considering that the demand for electricity is changing during different hours of a day, and from day to day, production management has become a necessary and integral part of the operations of the utility companies. A typical twenty-four hour load curve of a large city in the southern states during the summer months is shown in Figure 6.3. A load curve shows the power supplied by a utility,
plotted against time of occurrence; it typically illustrates the varying magnitude of the load during twenty-four hours. The residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation end-users as an aggregate have a

variable and cyclic demand during a twenty-four hour period. From the production side, this means that only about half the capacity is in constant use; this constant demand is called the base load. About another 40% or so of the demand cycles on and off gradually; this is called intermediate load or cycling load. About 10% or so of the capacity is used only a few hours a day; this is called peak load. The peak load comes in the mid to late afternoon for most utilities.

100 Peak Load Intermidiate or Cycling Load

80

% of Daily Peak

60

40 Base Load 20

0 0 4 8 12 Time (Hour) Figure 6.3 Typical Electricity Day Load Curve 16 20 24

Power plants come in various sizes, utilize different fuels, and use various technologies to convert the fuel to electricity. Most electricity today is generated in large, central stations with capacities ranging from hundreds to thousands of megawatts (MW). A large nuclear power plant produces about 1000 MW. The overall production capacity of electricity in the United States is about one million MW (i.e. equivalent of one thousand large nuclear power plants). With more consumers, which typically mean a more evenly balanced load, it makes sense to build large plants to take advantage of the economies of scale to reduce cost and increase profit.
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Large fossil fuel power plants (predominantly fueled by coal and natural gas) or even nuclear power plants, use heat to boil water and generate high temperature and high pressure steam (see Figure 6.4). The steam is then expanded as it passes through a steam turbine. The turbine converts the thermal energy of the steam into mechanical kinetic energy that turns the turbine shaft. The shaft is connected to a generator which converts the mechanical energy to electricity (i.e. electrical energy). The exit low temperature and low pressure steam cools off further in a heat exchanger and then enters the boiler to repeat the cycle again. Such large power plants are typically used as base load plants which mean that they operate twenty-four hours a day and generate a relatively constant load. Base load is the most economical for the utility to supply.
Generator High T&P Steam Turbine

Heat Boiler

Low T&P Steam

Heat Exchanger Water Cooling Water

Figure 6.4 Schematic of a Steam Power Plant

Utilities typically use a range of power generating facilities to meet the customer demand as indicated by a typical load curve in Figure 6.3. The peak load is typically supplied by small (up to about 300 MW capacity) power stations such as gas turbine generating units; peak load is the most expensive for utility to provide. Gas turbine generating facilities can be erected in a relatively short time, as opposed to large systems, and in as little as several months depending on the size. Gas turbine systems (Figure 6.5) operate on the thermodynamic cycle known as the Brayton cycle. In a Brayton cycle, atmospheric air is compressed by a compressor, heated by mixing with a fuel and burning in a combustor. The combustion product leaving the combustor then expanded in a turbine, with the excess of power produced by the turbine over that consumed by the compressor used for power generation. The power produced by an expansion turbine and consumed by a compressor is proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas passing through the system. Consequently, it is advantageous to operate the expansion turbine at the highest practical temperature consistent with economic materials and internal blade cooling technology and to operate the compressor with inlet air flow at as low a temperature as possible. As technology advances permit higher turbine inlet temperature, the optimum pressure ratio also increases.
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In a more efficient cycle, a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) cycle, the exhaust heat is captured in a heat exchanger to supply the heat necessary for many industrial, residential, and commercial heating needs.

Fuel

Combustor Generator

Compressor

Turbine

Air Exhaust Gas

Figure 6.5 Simple Gas Turbine Schematic

Electric Power Transmission and Distribution

Power plants generate electricity and transmission lines and distribution systems carry it to the customer as shown in the simplified schematic of the system in Figure 6.6. Generating system transfers the power to the plant switch yard in which the transformers bump up voltages to a high value for transmission purpose. As was mentioned earlier, the higher the voltage in transmitting a given power, the lower the transmission losses3. While the first transmission lines had a voltage of 138 thousand volts (138kV), today the voltages could be 230, 345, 500, 765 kV or higher. The power is then carried in these high voltage transmission lines, mounted over large steel towers similar to those shown in Figure 6.7, to receiving stations where transformers lower the voltage. The voltage is reduced further by another switch yard and then transmitted, over large wooded or steel poles, to the distribution substations where the transformers lower the voltage to a level appropriate for distribution to various industrial, commercial, and residential customers. The distribution substation is actually where the conversion from "transmission" to "distribution" takes place. Such a substation typically does two or three things: It has transformers that step transmission voltages (in the tens or hundreds of kV range) down to distribution voltages (typically less than 10 kV). It has a "bus" that can split the distribution power off in multiple directions.
3

The reason behind this is that Power = Voltage x Current, and a higher voltage means a lower current for the same amount of power for transmission. Also since the loss of power due to Joule heating is equal to 2 Loss = Resistance x (Current) , a lower current results in a lower loss in transmission.

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It often has circuit breakers and switches so that the substation can be disconnected from the transmission grid or separate distribution lines can be disconnected from the substation when necessary.

Figure 6.6 Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution

Figure 6.7 A Typical High Voltage Transmission Tower and Sample Switchyard

The power from the distribution substation is lowered by a small transformer, typically mounted on a wooden pole (see wooden pole before the customer in Figure 6.6), to 240 V before being transferred to the residential customers.
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Transmission lines are a complex system of structures and wires designed to carry between 69 and 765 kV of electricity for long distances. Transmission lines interconnect utilities and since 1976, the entire United States has been joined into one interconnected electric grid as shown in Figure 6.8. This grid even reaches into Canada allowing import/export of electricity between the two countries. The grid helps utilities smooth out hour-to-hour variations among users that are located near adjoining time zones where peak usage occurs an hour later. The main use of the transmission lines however has been changing from smoothing to bulk electricity transfers between utilities. Long-distance transmission of electricity costs only about 8% of what local transmission costs per kilometer. High local transmission cost is partly due to downed power lines during bad weather and illegal use when electricity is being stolen. In spite of the cost difference of local and long-distance

Figure 6.8 United States Electric Grid

transmissions, the overall transmission cost adds up to more than 50% of cost of electricity paid by the customers. As a result of this high cost, attention is being driven to other methods of transmissions that do not involve losses due to electromagnetic radiation associated with current high voltage transmission lines. One method involves the use of solid-state voltage convertors to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC); ironic considering the Edison-Westinghouse war of currents mentioned earlier. DC transmission lines carry a lower voltage for a given power transfer and therefore avoid losses due to electromagnetic radiation. Another method is to use superconducting transmission lines. This is because in superconducting materials show little resistance to conducting electricity at low temperatures. In such systems 10 to 15% of the joule heating losses present in short-distance transmission could be saved, as well as 2% losses suffered in

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long-distance transmission. A 1% improvement in electricity transmission efficiency could translate into over $1 billion savings.

Energy Market Impact on Electric Generation Options

The low cost of coal has made it the backbone of electric power industry. However, the costs of coalfired power generation have increased because of strict emissions regulations. As the demand growth slowed in the last decade, the major capital costs associated with large coal plants were hard to justify. Adding smaller and cheaper gas-fired units became the industrys new capacity choice. Table 6.1 compares the Cost of Electricity (COE) generated from coal and natural gas based technologies.

Table 6.1 US Cost of Electricity generation from coal and Natural Gas4
Fuel Cost Contribution to Cost of Electricity (COE) $/MWh Fuel Operation & Capital Maintenance 8.50 10.62 12.75 9.22 11.52 13.83 16.60 25.66 37.71 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50 2.00 2.00 2.00 19.62 19.62 19.62 18.40 18.40 18.40 10.72 10.72 10.72 Total COE

Technology Pulverized Coal with Supercritical Steam Boilers Pulverized Coal with Subcritical Steam Boiler Natural Gas Combined Heat and Power Cycle

$/million Btu 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.00 1.25 1.50 2.00 3.40 4.60

$/MWh

Cents/KWh

31.62 33.74 35.87 31.12 33.42 35.73 29.32 38.38 47.43

3.2 3.4 3.6 3.1 3.3 3.6 2.9 3.8 4.7

Notes: Cost based on year 2000 dollar.

It can be seen that the capital cost, as well as the operation and maintenance cost, of electricity generation for a natural gas combined heat and electricity technology is much less than that for coal fired technologies. In contrast the fuel cost for a natural gas system comprises a larger share of COE in comparison to a coal fired system. Therefore the COE for a natural gas system is only preferred economically if the fuel cost for the natural gas system falls below $2 per million Btu. This high sensitivity of COE to natural gas price may increase the reliance on coal for electricity generation as the price of natural gas increases in the future.
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Source: J.W. Tester, et. al., Sustainable Energy - Choosing Among Options MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2005 DVC/Seyyed Khandani/ENGIN130/FALL2012

Electricity prices are based on generation, transmission, and distribution costs. Fuel costs account for most of the generation costs for natural-gas- and oil fired plants but much less for coal and nuclear plants. There are no fuel costs associated with wind and solar plants. In competitive wholesale markets, natural gas and liquid fuel costs often set hourly prices. Technology choices for new generating capacity are typically made to minimize costs while meeting local and Federal emissions standards. Capacity expansion decisions consider capital, operating, and transmission costs. Coal-fired, nuclear, and renewable plants are capital-intensive, while operating (fuel) expenditures make up most of the costs for gas-fired capacity. Capital costs depend on such factors as equipment costs, interest rates, and cost-recovery periods. Fuel costs can vary according to fuel prices, plant operating efficiency, resource availability, and transportation costs.

Sustainability Issues
Over the last century, the electric industry has gone through a long period of rapid expansion and now provides fairly inexpensive and reliable service throughout most developed countries. The industry has partially moved from a centrally controlled and regulated architecture into a new configuration in which the generation section is deregulated and operates competitively. The intent has been to further reduce electricity prices by introducing the benefits of market competition. The transition has been difficult because the reconfiguration of a part of the system has had some major unanticipated repercussions. These are being dealt with in a variety of ways, but today's electric industry will have to evolve much further to achieve efficient, not to mention sustainable, operations in the future. Meanwhile, the developing world is struggling with bringing the benefits of electrification to both its urban and rural populations. Their growing pains mirror those of the earlier development of electric systems in the developed world, although they have access to the technological developments that have made power generation cleaner and more efficient. However, some developing countries need power so desperately and have such limited resources that they are using cheaper and dirtier technologies in the interim. Since electricity is key to industrialization, these developing countries will address problems of pollution and reliability of service when they can afford to do so -- or if they receive foreign assistance. Meanwhile, electrification is likely to bring benefits of improved health care, better education, and falling birth rates. In the process, developing nations are likely to contribute significantly to both global warming and regional air pollution (e.g., China and India rely heavily on coal). The electrical system worldwide is in an expansion mode as new customers are acquired and as existing customers demand new services. The industry is a major emitter of Green House Gas (GHGs), notably CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, but also methane (CH4) from gas leakage during transmission to gas-fired power generators. Expansion in service for the same primary fuel mix
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necessarily means increases in GHG emissions. Further, when bulk sources of GHG emissions are identified, power plants are at the top of the list (as opposed to transportation GHG emissions, which are distributed among the tailpipes of millions of individual vehicles). Until there are regulations limiting GHG emissions or economic penalties associated with emitting GHGs, it is unlikely that improvements in efficiency and the introduction of new technologies, that are cost-competitive under present pricing rules, will be able to slow the future increases in GHG emissions associated with growth. What are the other options available in a future where GHG emissions from the electric sector have to be reduced? Possibilities include: Increased use of renewable energy sources Increased use of nuclear power Introduction of carbon capture and storage at fossil fuel power plants Reduction in consumer and industrial usage of power (but not necessarily in services)

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