Electricity Generation

What Is Electricity Generation ?

Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from other sources of primary energy. The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday. His basic method is still used today: electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet. For electric utilities, it is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. The other processes, electricity transmission, distribution, and electrical power storage and recovery using pumped-storage methods are normally carried out by the electric power industry. Electricity is most often generated at a power station by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by chemical combustion or nuclear fission but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind. Other energy sources include solar photovoltaics and geothermal power. 

Electricity Problem in Pakistan

Energy Crisis in Pakistan is one of the severe challenges the country is facing today. Electricity, gas, water, fuel is essential part of our daily life and its outage has severely affected the economy and overall living of ours. Thousands have lost their jobs, businesses; our daily life has become miserable. Pakistan is currently facing up to 18 hours of electricity outage a day, is expected to face more if not dealt with in time.The country may plunge into energy crisis by year 2007 due to rising electricity demands into which double digit figure following increasing sale of electrical and electronic appliances on lease finance, The shortage in electricity production in Pakistan is worsening day by day which is causing long break downs and load shedding as called by government. The crisis started about a year ago when all of sudden the electricity consumption increased to a point where all the electricity producing sources failed to fulfill the demand. Apparently it is a matter of supply and demand.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of this crisis and to propose some short-term as well as long-term solutions to this problem. This study is exploratory in nature.

Causes:

The country is facing a huge electric power crisis today. This crisis appears insurmountable in the near or even long-term future, unless proper understanding and correct implementation is undertaken on priority basis. The demand for electricity in Pakistan during the winter months actually goes down and this winter has not been an exception. The systemic issues such as the failure to build new dams and Gen. Mushraf Government's inability to add even a single megawatt of new power to the grid during 9 years of his rule, it seems that the present crisis is a result of bad management and the lack of foresight. The total installed capacity of WAPDA and KESC totals around 19,500 megawatts. Almost two third of this power comes from thermal power plants (fossil fuels), one third is generated by water and about 2% comes from nuclear power plants.
Throughout the month of December, the electricity consumption in Pakistan hovered around 11,000 MW, down from the peak levels of 17,500 MW seen in summer. This demand was well within the installed capacity of WAPDA & KESC yet they were only generating a meager one third (6500MW) of their maximum capacity during this period leaving a huge gap between supply and demand. There are two main reasons for this:
1. The water flow from all major dams was halted starting mid December to allow the annual cleaning of canals in January. This action effectively took all the hydro power off line.
2. The thermal power plants were working far below their potential due to the lack of money caused by the circular debt between various government agencies reaching a staggering 400 billion Rupees.

Solution To The Crisis

Through my investigation and discovery, I suggest that the country that i am referring can solve this crisis by refering to the solution below :

1. Government should not get such kind of IPP’s (Independent Power Producers) circular Debts if Government  is unable to pay the charges.

2,Government must produce electricity from coal because their country are having a huge amount of coal they should generate electricity from it.

3.They should make phases and upgrade transmissions lines according to the usage of electricity in Pakistan.
If there is any kind of lack in investment to settle new plants of energy than the Government should sale shares in market to have more investment to cover up energy crisis.

4.If K.E.S.C can generate the electricity for two provinces (Sindh, Balouchistan) than Govt: should get interest in that case.

5.The government should try to make alternative way to produce Electricity at least cost per unit so we can consume and run our factories and so on for having least cost goods production.

As a conclusion, people from other countries should save electricity to avoid electricity crisis. So you won't regret when electrical crisis happen. 

Source From :

Prof Zahid Ali Mangi
D J Sindh Government Science College
Karachi
http://wikianswer.com
http://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/shortage-of-electricity-energy-crisis-in-pakistan-economics-essay.php#ixzz35vQ3V1MD

Electrical Saving II

 

In the previous post , we had talk about examples of saving electricity and here was the second part of post save electricity .Saving electricity doesn't just save money, it also saves the environment. This is news to a lot of people. After all, when you plug something into the wall, it seems clean enough you don't see or smell any pollution, like you do with your car. But the pollution is there it just happens at the power plant. Most electricity is generated by burning coal and other fossil fuels. Every time you turn on the lights, you create a little pollution.

 

Invest in appliances 

There's lots you can do to start saving energy and money.  You can also invest in more energy-efficient household appliances when it's time to replace them. Or, if you want to go straight to the heart of the problem, consider generating your own electricity or switching to a green electricity tariff. But it's not all about grand gestures. Smaller changes, such as unplugging your mobile phone's charger when the battery is fully charged, may shave only a few pence off your electricity bill, but can have a huge impact on the environment if we all get in the habit.

Making your own electricity

Though it takes time to recoup the installation cost, if you want to go the extra mile for energy efficiency, you could try producing your own electricity. Solar panels can generate electricity (solar PV panels) or, for a much lower initial cost, just help you heat water (solar thermal panels) - this can slash your water heating bill by a third. You could also have small domestic wind turbines . The wind turbines are much cheaper to install so have shorter payback periods than solar panels. The average wind speed around your house is key to how your small domestic turbine will perform. For most people in the UK, it won't be worth it. Find out more in our wind turbine guide.

Optimize the energy consumption of your PC

Modern PCs can be set up to enter energy saving modes from both the BIOS settings page and directly from the Windows Operating system. Enable "Sleep" and "Hybrid Sleep" for desktops and "Hibernation" for notebook PCs running Windows.

Applications of electricity

ELECTRICITY PYLONS

The light bulb is an early application of electricity, operates by Joule heating: the passage of current through resistance generating heat. Electricity is a very convenient way to transfer energy, and it has been adapted to a huge and growing number of uses. The invention of a practical incandescent light bulb in the 1870s led to lighting becoming one of the first publicly available applications of electrical power.

           Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within homes and factories.Public utilities were set up in many cities targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting.The Joule heating effect employed in the light bulb also sees more direct use in electric heating. While this is versatile and controllable, it can be seen as wasteful, since most electrical generation has already required the production of heat at a power station. A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued legislation restricting or banning the use of electric heating in new buildings.

             Electricity is however a highly practical energy source for refrigeration, with air conditioning representing a growing sector for electricity demand, the effects of which electricity utilities are increasingly obliged to accommodate^. Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed the electrical telegraph, demonstrated commercially in 1837 by Cooke and Wheatstone, was one of its earliest applications. 

            With the construction of first intercontinental, and then transatlantic, telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled communications in minutes across the globe. Optical fiber and satellite communication technology have taken a share of the market for communications systems, but electricity can be expected to remain an essential part of the process.

           The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in the electric motor, which provides a clean and efficient means of motive power. A stationary motor such as a winch is easily provided with a supply of power, but a motor that moves with its application, such as an electric vehicle, is obliged to either carry along a power source such as a battery, or to collect current from a sliding contact such as a pantograph.

^{Reference: http://wikipedia.com}