Electricity Generation and Distribution

Electric Generation

电能生成

The electricity generation sequence involves taking charge from the Earth, doing work on it to give it energy (expressed in terms of voltage), transporting the energy via a distribution system, using the energy, and dumping the spent charge back to the Earth. The Earth acts as a charge reservoir and reference potential for the energy transfer process.

电力生成过程包括从地球获取电荷，对其进行工作以赋予其能量（以电压表示），通过分配系统传输该能量，使用能量，最后将用过的电荷重新放回地球。地球在能量传输过程中起到电荷储存库和参考电势的作用。

While this picture of the Earth as the reservoir of charge from which charge is taken and to which charge is returned after the energy is used is the "big picture" of the large generation and distribution system, it may not be applied too literally in the local situation. You cannnot depend on a "ground" connection to the Earth to be sufficient as the path by which charge returns to the Earth. In particular, just a connection to a grounding rod is not a sufficiently low resistance path to provide shock protection by quickly carrying charge to the Earth in the case of a short circuit to ground. For electrical safety, the ground wire must be "bonded" back to the neutral of the supply transformer to force the tripping of the breaker in a ground fault situation.

虽然将地球视为一个储存电荷的库，从其中取出电荷并在使用能量后将其返回的图景，是大型发电和配电系统的‘大局观’，但在局部情况下可能不能过于字面化。你不能依赖‘接地’连接到地球作为电荷返回地球的路径。特别是，仅仅连接到接地棒并不足以提供足够低的电阻路径，以在发生接地短路时迅速将电荷传送到地球，从而提供触电保护。为了电气安全，接地线必须‘连接’回供电变压器的中性点，以在接地故障情况下触发断路器。

Electric Distribution

电力分配

The electric energy obtained in the electric generation process must be transported to the end user by electric conductors without large resistive power losses in the distribution process. A key part of the strategy for doing so involves using transformers to increase the voltage to hundreds of thousands of volts to minimize loss to heat in the transmission wires.

在电力生成过程中获得的电能必须通过电力导体传输给终端用户，而在分配过程中应避免较大的电阻功率损耗。实现这一目标的关键部分涉及使用变压器将电压提升到数万伏，以减少传输电线中的发热损耗。

The three high voltage conductors shown on the utility pole at right indicate that the power distribution is "three-phase", with each conductor 120 degrees in phase away from each of the others. If each section of the large insulators can withstand a working voltage of 10,000 volts, these conductors may be operating at something like 150,000 volts.

右侧电杆上所示的三个高压导体表明，电力分配是“三相”的，每个导体与其他两个导体相位相差120度。如果每个大型绝缘子的每个部分都能承受10,000伏的工作电压，这些导体可能正在运行在约150,000伏的电压水平。