how is energy from the national grid produced?

Question

how is the energy produced, is it just sent through power lines to your housr and then electrons are sent around your house that run everything? how is this energy delivered??

Answer 1

Nuclear power generation, coal/oil fired, Hydroelectric, Solar, Wind, wave generators. Even private citizens selling power to the "grid"

Answer 2

The voltage is raised at various generating plants and is kept very carefully synchronized to 60 (or 50) Hertz by the fixed rotational speed of the mechanical generators. Because the generators do not produce power unless the excitation circuits are powered, it is possible to let a unit "idle" spinning without producing significant power. The power lines are monitored for usage to see how much current is being drawn by companies and houses. As more power is drawn, the voltage drops and more units are put on line. Most power grids (local distribution grids) are inter-connected by massive very high voltage lines that permit power to move between grids and balance the power needs of areas with some kind of local need, especially a shortage of power units when some are under repair or more are being brought on line, which may take an hour or more. Like a circuit breaker in a house, local protection may trip if something shorts the wires in a neighborhood - a car accident or fire. There are similar cut outs for larger areas when main power lines short out or when so much power is being drawn over a distribution line that a transformer might blow which usually happens when another supply line breaks due to wind, other weather or accident to a high voltage line. With rare exceptions power is nor stored, the most obvious cases being places where power is produced by continuous uncontrolled water falls so electricity is used to pump some of the water up into a reservoir when power is not needed on the grid - say at night in the summer and is used to generate power again when needed, as on a hot summer afternoon.