National grid

Who is National Grid and what do they do?

I saw a cute polar bear commercial and I believe it is for National Grid. Who are they and what do they do?

Answer :

Somebody's gotta run the power lines, right? They're not run by the government. They're owned and/or operated by various utility companies, and in the northeastern US that's a company called National Grid. It's not actually "national" in the sense of being the whole US. In fact, it's not even a US company at all. They're a British company, originally formed when the British privatized their national power grid in the early 1990s. They took over the work that used to be run by Keyspan Energy in the US a few years ago. So what they do is build power lines, maintain power lines, measure power flowing through lines, and make sure that the power gets from the power plant to your house (and that you've billed appropriately for it). They also connect to OTHER power grids, to make sure they have power during failures. They also do some side business in natural gas. The commercial is presumably part of a "don't blame us for global warming" charm offensive, with the intent of laying the groundwork to keep people from voting to regulate them too harshly. They've got a horrifyingly bad flash-only web site on the subject at the source below.

Why are transformers used in the National Grid to produce high voltages for transmission?

Why are transformers used in the National Grid to produce high voltages for transmission?

Answer :

There is less power loss if you push a small current with a high voltage than if you push a high current with a small voltage. A transformer will increase (or decrease) the voltage depending on how it is set up. A transformer is basically a metal doughnut usually iron cos being magnetic is very important. The doughnut has coils of wire wrapped around it that will have a current passed through it. The electric current induces a magnetic field and will induce an electric current in another coil wrapped around the core. Vs/Vp = Ns/Np is the equation where Vs is the induced voltage in the secondary coil Vp is the voltage in the primary Ns is the number of coils in the secondary coil and Np is the number in the primary. So... with a higher voltage less current will pass through the wires meaning that less of the energy is lost due to the resistance of the wire.

The cost due to heat loss in the cables of the National Grid goes down as the cable is made thicker. Why?

And also: The cost of installing the cables of the National Grid goes up as the cable is made thicker. Why? These questions are in relation to transformers.

Answer :

According to Laws of Resistance, Cross sectional area of conductor is inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor. So, the thicker is the cable, the less resistance it offers and consequently less heat (loss) is produced. But certainly thicker cable needs more money than a thin cable. So, cost goes up in this case nAzMuL

Does National Grid control all of the electricity in the US, or are there other electric companies in the US?

I heard that the National Grid was the only company in the US that controls the electricity. Is this true or are there other companies other than National Grid that control the electricity?

Answer :

There is a national grid but it is owned by several companies. There is no monopoly.

How long has national grid been in business for?

How long has national grid been in business for?

Answer :

2 years.