Introduction to Power Delivery Systems

A transmission and distribution system moves power from a utility's power production and purchase points to it's customers. Retail sale of electric energy involves the delivery of power in ready to use form to the final consumers. This electric power must flow through a power delivery system beginning at it's production until it reached the end-users. The delivery system is called the transmission and distribution system and it consists of lines, substations, transformers, and other equipment scattered over a wide geographic strategically located. The transmission and distribution's function is to mainly deliver power as needed to the utility's customers.

Normally, power generation is concentrated at few large, and usually isolated, power stations. The transmission and distribution moves this power to the customers. But in some cases, power stations are small, but numerous, and strategically located throughout the power system in proximity of the customers.

However, even which scenario of power delivery is available, Transmission and Distribution requires investment in billions of dollars. It will be the main objective of the Power Distribution Planner to make the power system deliver readily and widely available, economical, and reliable energy to the customers.

We will discuss the concepts and principles, objectives, and missions of Transmission and Distribution on later posts.

What is Power Distribution?

Before we discuss about Power Distribution Planning, we might as well go back to learn, review, and refresh the basic concepts of power distribution.

What is a power distribution?

Power distribution is the final stage of the delivery of power from its generation to the end-users. This delivery process consists of several stages which basically consist of:

1. Generation
2. Transmission
3. Distribution

The process of power delivery starts at the generating facility, the first stage, where electricity is being generated. There are a many ways to generate electricity and mostly it is by rotating a turbine which is coupled to a generator rotor through the use of steam, water, and air. Once the power is generated, it goes to a transformer where the voltage is transformed up to transmission voltage to travel across high voltage transmission lines. The transmission lines generally connects to the grid then to substations which step down the voltage to distribution level. These substations are generally owned by the electric utilities which will be responsible in distributing the electricity to the end-users, mostly through another voltage transformation for safe customer use.

Simple enough? Not quite as this simple concept holds all schools of electrical engineering and all our discussions will revolve on this simple foundation.

Welcome to Power Distribution Planner

Hi all! Welcome to DistributionPlanner, a site were aspiring electric utility engineers would learn the basic arts and sciences of power distribution planning. Being the oldest and most traditional subgenre within the electrical engineering, power engineering has been subjected to intense modernization challenges in both technology and industry structure. DistributionPlanner hopes to be a source of information for the electrical distribution planners to meet up the demands for greater performance at optimum resources with the ever changing requirements of the modern electrical engineering world.

This site hopes to make the challenging areas in power distribution planning as simple as it can get. Feel free to give your comments and queries.

Thank you and let's mark the start of a documented journey, an experience exploding with learnings, purpose, and meaning...