How electricity is distributed in Australia

Unless you have a powerplant in your backyard, the electricity you use has to travel great distances through electrical wires from a powerplant to your home.

The electricity generated by most powerplants in eastern Australia is fed into a network of electrical transmission lines called the national electricity grid.

Towns and cities across the eastern half of Australia get their electricity from the national grid. Tasmania is also linked to the grid via a cable buried deep beneath the ocean called Basslink. Central and Western Australia are not connected because the great distance involved makes the cost too great.

Having a national grid allows the Australian states to share the electricity they generate. This allows electricity to be quickly moved to where it is needed most, particularly when there is an increased large demand in part of the grid. The national grid also helps ensure that all cities and towns have a reliable electricity supply.

Electricity is transmitted through the grid at high voltages.

Voltage in a transmission line is a little like the water pressure in a pipe. The greater the water pressure the more water moves through the pipe during a given period of time.

The greater the voltage, the more electricity moves through the transmission lines. This means that thin wires can carry a large amount of electrical power.

The national grid uses high-voltage transmission lines between towns. These tend to have a voltage of between 132 and 500kV (kiloVolts).

Suburban powerlines don't need to carry as much electricity. The electricity lines you can see on normal streets generally only carry 11kV. This is enough to power several streets at once!

High voltage transmission towers carry high voltage transmission lines to most towns and cities in the Eastern States of Australia.