How The US Electricity Grid Works (a simplified version)

When looking at something as complex as an electricity grid that spans over 5 million miles (thats enough to warp around the earth about 200 times) of cables and provides electricity to over 350 Million people, we think it's helpful to use scaled down analogies.

Imagine you've got the COOLEST toy set ever(even cooler then the best one you've ever gotten for Christmas)!

This toy set has lots of batteries, wires, and light bulbs. You want to make sure that all the light bulbs light up whenever you want them to, no matter where they are in your gigantic toy kingdom.

🔋 Batteries (Power Plants): Picture these as magical factories. Some are powered by splashing water, whooshing wind, shiny sun rays, dark coal, or even teeny-tiny atoms! They're like the big chefs cooking up a storm of electricity.

🛣️ Wires (Transmission and Distribution Lines): Think of these as long roads that the electricity travels on. Big highways that carry lots of electricity long distances are called "transmission lines". Smaller roads that bring the electricity to your home are "distribution lines".

💡 Light Bulbs (Homes and Businesses): Every time you turn on your toy or light up a room, it's like giving a high-five to these bulbs! They're the party-goers waiting for the electricity to kickstart the dance!

Your toy kingdom is so vast you've got different playgrounds or "zones". In our real-life giant play set called the US, we've named these zones East, West, and Texas(there's a couple others, but these are the major ones). They're like separate game boards, but sometimes they share their toys if a friend needs a hand.

And hey, you know how sometimes your toy needs a fresh battery? In the real world, there's a team of superheroes making sure the power never stops. They're like toy doctors, always ready to make sure every bulb can party on!

So, put on your captain's hat and imagine guiding this mega electricity adventure park! That's the exciting world of the US electricity grid!

We think the grid is incredible cool and an amazing human achievement. Can you imagine how many hours went into just creating the system for you to get electricity to your home!?

Now think about how many hours it takes your local utility company to maintain that grid, through all of the thunderstorms, blizzards, hurricanes, tornados and or heatwaves that come through your neck of the woods. It's alot of work.

Which is why your local utility spends the majority of their resources maintaining or improving that grid, but that leaves very little left for optimizing for your experience with them which is where we come in.

There are dozens of things every person can be doing to get more out of their electricity accounts, to better harness the massive grid from which they draw power. Want to learn what a couple of those things are? Click here.

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