Can I ask for a little more detail about AC commercial power distribution.
How is the voltage regulated with changing loads? The 'howthingswork' web
site shows a bank of regulators on the 7200V line, but says nothing about
how they work. Does the High Voltage/Low Current of the main transmission
lines buffer the plant itself? I can see this because the voltage drop in
the transmission line would be a very small fraction of the voltage.
However, that isn't necessarily the case once through the substation
step-down transformers. It would also seem that the generators produce a
fixed voltage--is that right? Is there any where else in the distribution
system where the voltage is regulated? If so how?
In my understanding, turning up the power really means bringing more
generators on line and if the demand is less than the capacity of the
running generators, the excess is dumped back to ground. Again is this
right?
Another Web site talked about DC transmission being more efficient than
AC--but I think they were talking about at the same voltage. The particular
Canadian DC line was running at 900K! Why is this so?
Any good on-line references to how this all works--at a level beyond
'howthingswork'?
Other things I don't know (amongst many, many) is how the various power
plants on a grid synchonize frequency and phase as their output is merged?
How do you add in the output of a bunch of wind turbines--for that matter
how is the frequency regulated in these?