Electricity generation

       When you turn on a switch to turn on an electric widget, the electricity has to come from somewhere. Now somewhere varies a lot, depending on where you live.

            Here's a good link that generally summarizes all this info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation

            And electricity is wildly popular throughout the world. Just look at all the telephone poles and power lines everywhere, for example. Its hard imagining living without easy to get electricity for so many these days. Heck we can light up the night, for example. Worldwide communications and trade depends on it.

            Said another way, when it comes to electricity generation, when the light bulb goes on, one does not know for sure how that electricity was generated/made, and even where it was generated/made. You just know it worked, and when it doesn't work, then we are usually unhappy, especially during the cold season. Generally it is made in the region you live in, so the national numbers are not really good indicators for where you live. And often the electricity you use is from some combination of generating modes, like some combination of coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydro power, etc., etc.

            And since electricity is not easily or economically stored, the demand at any one time influences how the controllers make more or less electricity to meet the demand. For example, we generally use more electricity when we are awake, than when we are asleep. Thank goodness some of these patterns are predictable, so those who make electricity can better anticipate demand that keeps us happy, at least until we have to pay the bill.

            Now I could go on and make this post get complicated, but the aforementioned covers all the basics, I think.