Electricity: From Generation Source to Your Home

Moving electricity from the generation source to your home is a unique process of creating, transmitting and distributing power. The electricity produced at each of the generating plants is channeled from the generators to a transformer. The transformer “steps up” or increases the voltage to 230,000 volts (or 230 kV). This is done so that power can be transmitted over large distances. The longer the distance electricity has to travel, the higher the voltage must be.

High voltage power lines carry electricity from the power plants to points throughout the Idaho Power system. Customers, however, can’t use electricity directly from these high voltage lines because homes and businesses are not set up to handle hundreds of thousands of volts.

Instead, the high voltage electricity flows into transformers at substations where the voltage is “stepped down” to levels that in some cases can be used by industrial customers but is still too high for residential use.

Smaller distribution lines bring electricity to homes and businesses. Transformers, frequently at the top of power poles, lower the voltage again to 120-240 volts before it enters a home.

The explanation of this process takes much longer than the process itself. Since electricity travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it takes only a fraction of a second.

Another way to think about electricity transmission is to compare it to our road system. Electrical lines and facilities are a necessary part of the infrastructure within any community, just like roads, water and sewer facilities. Much like our highway system, Idaho Power's 24,000-square-mile powerline grid is made up of high capacity transmission and low capacity distribution lines. The high capacity transmission lines operate somewhat like interstate highways and freeways that move a large volume of vehicle traffic. Electricity flows on this electric "freeway" to a substation, where it is reduced to a lower voltage and sent out again on distribution lines. These lower capacity distribution lines operate like streets and avenues that crisscross communities and neighborhoods. Many are needed to get from one destination to another.

This Web site is the joint Boardman to Hemingway Transmission Line Project site. Information contained on this site is approved for posting by Idaho Power. Visit the Idaho Power Web site.