why is it important to make the national grid as efficient as possible?

Question

Extra question: If the national grid is working at capacity, what is the efficiency???

Answer 1

The national grid should be as efficient as possible to reduce the power loss in transformers, and transmission lines that make up the grid.

The efficiency = Power out to consumers/(Power in to grid)

Any power lost in the grid must be made up by the power companies.



The national grid is close to full capacity but this has nothing to do with its efficiency to deliver power in most situations. However when the load reaches the maximum capacity of the national grid, it is essentially the bottleneck preventing the consumers from getting their required power. The national grid definitely needs to be improved but it will cost billions to improve.

Answer 2

Well, we don't want to waste energy, do we? Different generating methods have different efficiency levels, and differing speed of reaching maximum output. Nuclear power stations are good for constant level power output and sudden peaks in demand can be handled by the use of 'pumped-storage' hydroelectric generators, which are kept in reserve for use at known times like 'soap opera tea breaks', when there is a well-predictable increase in power demand, to cover all the people who want a kettleful of fresh boiling water....



No specifics on actual efficiency of the grid, but you can be sure that the operating companies will want to maximise the amount of generating capacity they have at any moment, and that is achieved by having a range of generating options....

Answer 3

The efficient national grid will have minimum line losses, hence more power will be able to the consumers and more billing for the utility company



The efficiency of the national grid can be calculated if the line losses are known.

Answer 4

convinient for use.