All about the Electric Power we Consume
Professor Kenneth Gayley  
The City of Chicago Lit up at Night
Electric Light Used  to See after Dark




Power Stations Supply the Necessary Power Needed to Serve the Community

             
The power plant  sends electricity through a grid of power lines. First, big transmission wires on tall towers  carry electricity to places called SUBSTATIONS in different neighborhood. These substations contain equipment that reduces electricity's voltage so it can travel on small power lines that brach out down streets, either on overhead power lines or lines burried underground.
  

Overhead and underground power lines carry electricity to  transformers  on poles or on the ground, where the  voltage  of electricity is reduced again so people can use it safely. (Transformers and substations contain equipment that is very dangerous to touch; that’s why they have warning signs on them.)

                           

From transformers, electricity travels into buildings through wires called service drops. These connect to a meter box, which measures how much electricity is being used, and to all the wires that run inside walls to outlets and switches.