AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ELECTRICITY

-Leeno Shilla

Hello, I hope you know me very well, though you cannot see me or touch me. You can
only see my effects, when you want light in the room, heat in the kitchen, wind in the fan,
pumping water in to the container, drying your hair, heating you bath water and if you name any
appliances I will be there for you and you cannot live without me not even for a day. By now you
might have guess who I am? If I am not near you, you will be frustrated and scolded those people
who send me here especially when you want to call your friend and find that your mobile battery
is drained. I am your most intimate friend but if you touch me you might die. I am being brought
to your house from a far distance. Depending on your requirement I may come in small quantity
or large quantity. You may have many gadgets but without me they are nothing. My name is
Electricity. Let me tell you the journey how I reached you.

First of all, let me tell the sources I came from depending on your requirement. The most
common sources are:-

i) Hydro Power Station.

ii) Thermal Power Station.
iii) Diesel Power Station.

Since most of you need me all the time, I can be found out from some alternative source also.

i) Nuclear Power Station.

ii) Solar Energy.
iii) Wind Energy.
iv) Tidal Energy
v) Biomass Energy.

You might be wonder by now, how the above sources are able to send me to your home. All
my friends from the above different sources are meeting together at a place called Grid
Substation. I cannot come directly to you from this station because I am in a very dangerous
form while in this station. Before I reached your home I will convert myself into a lower level till
I am useable to you. This area where I am being converted and my power reduced is called Sub-
station. My friend transformer, help me in reducing my strength and I am very thankful to him.
However he will need your attention most of the time, otherwise he will not be able to help me.
He used oil in the process and should not be allowed to get angry otherwise his temperature will
be high. This happen when you extract me by force more than he delivers. In such cases he will
call his friends to block my way. His friend’s name is called Switchgear. This switchgear may be
a simply switch or complicate device known as Circuit Breaker. This circuit breaker in turn has a
spy who checked about my movement and if I exceed my capacity he will tell the circuit breaker
to stop me from going.

Let me come back again to my source and tell you how I am produced. In the hydro power
station they used water to produce me. You might be wondering why I’m being produced by
water. Wait a minute; I will let you know the detail. The water need to be store at the higher level
so that it can gain height and this is done by constructing a barrier across the river. This water is
taken down the earth through a conduit till it reached a power station. This water drives the
wheels which in turn drive the generator and subsequently I’m produced. It may sound very
simple but people have to work day and night continuously so that you can get me all the time.
Similarly, in case of thermal power station they burn coal to heat the water to produce steam
which drive the wheel and in turn drive the Generator. In the Diesel power station the generator
is directly driven by the diesel engine just like driving the engine of a diesel car. There are
different methods of producing me in the other type of sources, but I am very tired now, so I will
not be able to tell you all how I am produced from the other sources and hope you don’t mind.
The Economic of a country depend so much on my availability because I am the yardstick of its
development. I have many friends in all the country but some countries are giving me 60 cycles
per second like in USA but in our country and in other European country I’m being given 50
cycles per second. It is for this reason that if you use tools brought from America here in India I
will be uncomfortable and may not work for you.

At your home I come through 3 wires or four wires depending on your requirement and
accordingly they called me Single phase and Three Phases. Sometime they called me current and
some other time they even called me light. I do not know how this name is attached to me. When
I’m doing work then I’ll be called current because I am in motion. Probably the nickname light
comes because in the earlier days people utilized me only for lighting. So please call me
electricity in most of your conversation. When I come to your house for single phase user I came
through one wire which is usually red in color and which always stay on the right side, this is
called phase. Then I return through another wire which is usually black in colour and stay on the
left side and it is called neutral. In earlier days a third wire come along and it’s always placed on
the middle top which is green in color. This is connected to the earth and will protect you if by
mistake the phase wire touches the equipment which you are using. Hence, you will be safe if
you touched its cover by accident and protect you from touching me. Nowadays you have to
make this wire yourself. You will notice that there are many switches at your home which
regulate my flow. This is done to enable me to protect you in case there is failure in your
equipment and also to control my flow. Otherwise, you will blame me if the bill is high.

I have some suggestion for you so that you will not get injured when using me.

i) Please do not touch any equipment which I will flow when your arm or
body is wet.
ii) Please switch off the emersion before taking bath.
iii) I will do honestly work for you if you used IS mark equipment even
though they are little costly than the non-IS mark.
iv) When not in used please removed the plug because sometimes my enemy
will come through lightning even if the switch off.
v) Please do not allow children to play in proximity to small or large electric
appliances.
vi) Replace any light switches that have a tendency to flicker.
vii) Replace any light switches that are hot to the touch.
viii) Avoid overloading extension cords, sockets and plugs.
ix) Do not entry force a three prong plug into a two receptacle socket
x) Please do not hang cloth on my cable.

During short circuit or spark, it is vital to understand what to do to prevent or put out the
fire to keep the damage and devastation from spreading. Do not put water on fire caused by
me; Use a dry fire extinguisher or baking soda instead
You should, of course, call 101 or other appropriate emergency services immediately in
case of injury or fire.
I will be a good servant as long as you follow instructions otherwise I will be a monster
Thank you for using me. Help me to help you better.