Electrical grids
High Voltage transmission grids (380 kV - 220 kV - 150 kV) carry power from production sites to large industrial centres and to urban areas. This takes place by means of power lines, mostly aerial, even across hundreds of kilometres.
The transmission grid also serves to interconnect production centres and to monitor the electricity flow. Generation dispatch allows for optimisation of production in line with consumer needs, guaranteeing, at every moment, a balance between supply and demand, as well as adjusting and reallocating electricity on the grid in order to reduce energy waste. For example, at night, when consumption is reduced, power generation can be lowered.
High voltage energy is transported by the power lines to the outskirts of cities and distribution districts, where enormous automatic transformers considerably reduce the voltage;
Distribution networks are the last step along the route for the delivery of electricity to the end user. They are generally underground and form a dense interconnected network, including Medium Voltage and Low Voltage grids. Medium Voltage grids (between 6.3 kV and 27 kV) carry power into the cities and the distribution districts, connecting the primary substations. The electricity continues its journey in the urban territory to reach the distribution transformers where the voltage is brought to the value of delivery to the user and, through low voltage networks (230 - 400 V), it reaches offices, shops and homes. The distribution of the electricity continues inside buildings, where there is a delivery point, represented by a meter, connected to supply the private electrical systems of end users.
