national grid

• Question:-Who is National Grid and what do they do?
  I saw a cute polar bear commercial and I believe it is for National Grid. Who are they and what do they do?
  
  Answer:-Somebody's gotta run the power lines, right? They're not run by the government. They're owned and/or operated by various utility companies, and in the northeastern US that's a company called National Grid.
  
  It's not actually "national" in the sense of being the whole US. In fact, it's not even a US company at all. They're a British company, originally formed when the British privatized their national power grid in the early 1990s. They took over the work that used to be run by Keyspan Energy in the US a few years ago.
  
  So what they do is build power lines, maintain power lines, measure power flowing through lines, and make sure that the power gets from the power plant to your house (and that you've billed appropriately for it). They also connect to OTHER power grids, to make sure they have power during failures.
  
  They also do some side business in natural gas.
  
  The commercial is presumably part of a "don't blame us for global warming" charm offensive, with the intent of laying the groundwork to keep people from voting to regulate them too harshly. They've got a horrifyingly bad flash-only web site on the subject at the source below.
• Question:-Why are transformers used in the National Grid to produce high voltages for transmission?
  Why are transformers used in the National Grid to produce high voltages for transmission?
  
  Answer:-There is less power loss if you push a small current with a high voltage than if you push a high current with a small voltage.
  
  A transformer will increase (or decrease) the voltage depending on how it is set up. A transformer is basically a metal doughnut usually iron cos being magnetic is very important. The doughnut has coils of wire wrapped around it that will have a current passed through it. The electric current induces a magnetic field and will induce an electric current in another coil wrapped around the core.
  
  Vs/Vp = Ns/Np
  
  is the equation where Vs is the induced voltage in the secondary coil Vp is the voltage in the primary Ns is the number of coils in the secondary coil and Np is the number in the primary.
  
  So... with a higher voltage less current will pass through the wires meaning that less of the energy is lost due to the resistance of the wire.
• Question:-The cost due to heat loss in the cables of the National Grid goes down as the cable is made thicker. Why?
  And also:
  The cost of installing the cables of the National Grid goes up as the cable is made thicker. Why?
  
  These questions are in relation to transformers.
  
  Answer:-According to Laws of Resistance,
  Cross sectional area of conductor is inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor.
  So, the thicker is the cable, the less resistance it offers and consequently less heat (loss) is produced.
  
  But certainly thicker cable needs more money than a thin cable. So, cost goes up in this case
  nAzMuL
• Question:-Does National Grid control all of the electricity in the US, or are there other electric companies in the US?
  I heard that the National Grid was the only company in the US that controls the electricity. Is this true or are there other companies other than National Grid that control the electricity?
  
  Answer:-There is a national grid but it is owned by several companies. There is no monopoly.
• Question:-How long has national grid been in business for?
  How long has national grid been in business for?
  
  Answer:-2 years.
• Question:-Do I need a generator while I receive adequate power supply from national grid?
  I heard people saying that you should have a generator for better performance. But my national grid power supply is sufficient. Do you think that I should think of buying a generator?
  
  Answer:-Hardly you can find anybody who didn’t face the harsh reality to watch his favorite electrical goods damaged by power fluctuations. National grid offers sufficient power supply at very economic rate and is available almost everywhere. So, everybody uses this power supply and so you think.
  But, the situation is not always so comfortable as you think. Due to several reasons, the power supply may interrupt suddenly, there may be burn out or wire damages or transformer damages. The sudden fluctuation or huge spike can damage your electrical goods. You may see your favorite refrigerator crashed or TV burnt out or room heater spoiled. To get rid of these calamities, you need to use a device that can ensure consistent power supply at fixed frequency. A generator can do this for you, it ensures the frequency level with it built in AVR technology.
• Question:-how does a small wind turbine feed current into the national grid?
  For instance if the turbine has 2 spare amps of current, how could this be fed into a national grid of several hundreds of amps? A car charger works by exceeding the charge voltage of the battery, but of course you can't do this to the national grid.... can you?
  
  Answer:-Of course it does - it has to - but what it really (normally) does is supply power to the house so the amount coming off the grid is reduced - the inverter from the batteries supplied by the wind turbine produces one volt or so more than the grid. If the wind turbine can produce enough power to meet all the needs of the local place, and the power company supplier allows it, then the turbine can "reverse" the meter and push amps into the grid to be used by someone down the street (commonly there are two meters to keep track of how much is fed back) who doesn't care where the amps come from as long as they cycle exactly in time with the grid.
• Question:-Why are the cables of the national grid carried high above the ground?
  Why are the cables of the national grid carried high above the ground rather than being buried underground? Thanks
  
  Answer:-In UK the national grid voltage is 400,000 volts or 400KV
  
  At this voltage the thickness of insulation required to make the cables safe would be huge. Just look at the size of the glass insulators on which they are suspended.
  
  Also the cables are uninsulated in fresh air so the wind helps to keep them cool
  
  In Large cities where 275KV cables have to be run underground they are very expensive often having hollow centres through which oil is circulated to cool the cables
  
  The simple answer is excessive cost compared to overhead system
• Question:-Is it possible to sell renewable energy to other sources other than the national grid?
  I am planning on setting up a wind farm in Africa and planning to export it to Europe in cannisters or cylinders. Will I be able to get a buyer even though I am not connected to any of the national grids?
  
  Answer:-You do realize that a wind farm doesnt harvest wind, it actually makes electricity. You cannot put electricity into cannisters or cylinders.
• Question:-Why is national grid sending a collection notice?
  Already get billed by LIPA every month and never got a bill from national grid before until last week for $50 something and now I've got one today for $60 something confused I'm going to call them tomorrow early morning also how is it that some tenants don't pay electric also
  Wrong section but help if you know
  
  Answer:-No idea - make the call and ask!