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Power Lines and Transformers

Power lines carry high-voltage electricity from power stations to areas where it will be used. Transformers at local distribution centers and substations reduce the voltage to safer levels for local transmission and use. Transformers work efficiently to reduce energy losses by using high voltages which allow for lower currents in the transmission lines. The number of turns in each coil determines whether a transformer steps up or steps down the voltage.

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Ukash Adan Fadit
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32 views

Power Lines and Transformers

Power lines carry high-voltage electricity from power stations to areas where it will be used. Transformers at local distribution centers and substations reduce the voltage to safer levels for local transmission and use. Transformers work efficiently to reduce energy losses by using high voltages which allow for lower currents in the transmission lines. The number of turns in each coil determines whether a transformer steps up or steps down the voltage.

Uploaded by

Ukash Adan Fadit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Grade 11 physics note:

Power lines and transformers

Power stations may be 100km or more from the places where the electricity they generate is
used. This -electricity must be distributed around the country. High- voltage electricity leaves
the power station.

voltage may be as much as one million volts. To avoid danger to people, it is usually carried in
cables called power lines slung high above the ground between tall pylons. Lines of pylons
stride across the countryside, heading for the urban and industrial areas that need power.

When the power lines approach the area where the power is to be used, they enter a local
distribution center. Here the voltage is reduced to a less hazardous level, and the power is sent
through more cables (overhead or underground) to local substations. In the substation,
transformers reduce the voltage to the local supply voltage, typically 230 V. Wherever you live,
there is likely to be a substation in the neighborhood. It may be in a securely locked building, or
the electrical equipment may be surrounded by fencing, which carries notices warning of the
hazard. From the substation, electricity is distributed around the neighboring houses. In some
countries, the power is carried in cables buried underground. Other countries use tall 'poles,
which hold the cables above the level of traffic in the street to distribute the power. Overhead
power lines and cables can be an eyesore, but the cost of burying cables underground can be ten
or a hundred times as great as using poles.

WHY USE HIGH VOLTAGES

The high voltages used to transmit electrical power around a country are dangerous. That is why
the cables that carry the power are supported high above people, traffic, and buildings on tall
pylons. Sometimes the cables are buried underground, but this is much more expensive, and the
cables must be safely insulated. There is a good reason for using high voltages. It means that
the current flowing in the cables is relatively low, and this wastes less energy. We can
understand this as follows. When a current flows in a wire or cable, some of energy it is carrying
is lost because of the cable's the resistance -the cables get warm. A small current waste less
energy than a high current. Electrical engineers do everything they can to reduce the energy
losses in the cables. If they can reduce the current to half its value (by doubling the voltage), the
losses will be one-quarter of their previous value. This is because power losses in cables are
proportional to the square of the current flowing in the cables:

♦ Double the current gives four times the losses

♦ Three times the current gives nine times the losses.

Transformers
A transformer is a device used to increase or decrease the voltage of an electricity supply. They
are designed power. to be as efficient as possible (up to 99.9% efficient). This is because the
electricity we use may have passed through as many as 10 transformers before it reaches us from
the power station. A loss of 1% of energy in each transformer would represent a total waste of
10% of the energy leaving the power station.

Figure: a) The structure of a transformer. This is a step-up transformer because there are more
turns on the secondary coil than on the primary. If the connections to it were reversed, it would
be a step-down transformer. b) The circuit symbol for a transformer shows the two coils with
the core between them.
Every transformer has three parts:

A primary coil (Vp)

Secondary coll (Vs)

An iron core - this links the two coils.

Notice that there is no electrical connection between the two coils.

They are linked together only by the iron core. Notice also that the voltages are both alternating
voltages - a transformer does not change Ac. to D.c. or anything of the sort. It changes the size of
an alternating voltage.

To step up the input voltage by a factor of 16, there must be 16 times as many turns on the
secondary coil as on the primary coil. Comparing the numbers of turns on the two coils tells us
how the voltage will be changed.

A step-up transformer increases the voltage, so there are more turns on the secondary than on
the primary. A step down transformer reduces the voltage, so there are fewer turns on the
secondary than on the primary.

(Note that, if the voltage is stepped up, the current must be stepped down, and vice versa.)

The ratio of the numbers of turns tells us about the factor by which the voltage will be changed.
Hence we can write an equation, known as the transformer equation, relating the two voltages,
Vp ad Vs to the numbers of turns on each coil, Np, and Ns.
Worked example 1

A transformer is needed to step down the 230 V mains supply to 6.0 V. If the primary coil has
1000 turns, how many turns must the secondary have?

Step 1: Draw a transformer symbol, and mark on it the information from the question, as in the
diagram.

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