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AC Power - How does it work?
Power in an electric circuit is the rate of flow of energy past a given point of the circuit. In alternating current circuits, energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors may result in periodic reversals of the direction of energy flow. The portion of power that, averaged over a complete cycle of the AC waveform, results in net transfer of energy in one direction is known as active power (sometimes also called real power). The portion of power due to stored energy, which returns to the source in each cycle, is known as reactive power.
Źródło: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power
History of electric system
By 1890 the electric power industry was flourishing, and power companies had built thousands of power systems (both direct and alternating current) in the United States and Europe. These networks were effectively dedicated to providing electric lighting. During this time a fierce rivalry known as the "War of Currents" emerged between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse over which form of transmission (direct or alternating current) was superior.8 In 1891, Westinghouse installed the first major power system that was designed to drive a 100 horsepower (75 kW) synchronous electric motor, not just provide electric lighting, at Telluride, Colorado.9 On the other side of the Atlantic, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky built a 20 kV 176 km three-phase transmission line from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main for the Electrical Engineering Exhibition in Frankfurt.10 In 1895, after a protracted decision-making process, the Adams No. 1 generating station at Niagara Falls began transferring three-phase alternating current power to Buffalo at 11 kV. Following completion of the Niagara Falls project, new power systems increasingly chose alternating current as opposed to direct current for electrical transmission.11
Developments in power systems continued beyond the nineteenth century. In 1936 the first experimental HVDC (high voltage direct current) line using mercury arc valves was built between Schenectady and Mechanicville, New York. HVDC had previously been achieved by series-connected direct current generators and motors (the Thury system) although this suffered from serious reliability issues.12 In 1957 Siemens demonstrated the first solid-state rectifier, but it was not until the early 1970s that solid-state devices became the standard in HVDC.13 In recent times, many important developments have come from extending innovations in the ICT field to the power engineering field. For example, the development of computers meant load flow studies could be run more efficiently allowing for much better planning of power systems. Advances in information technology and telecommunication also allowed for remote control of a power system's switchgear and generators.
Źródło: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_system#History
Electrician - increasingly also computer science
Electrical installations, especially those which will be installed in buildings with complicated structures often require the creation of a very difficult project. Special computer programs enable electricians much easier to plan where and how they will run the wire, where will be located branch and so on. In this way, more and more electricians may remind us of specialists, because the design of electrical networks at the present time is done properly only through the computer. Special programs also allow control of parameters during operation of the installation.