Electricity 101

Electricity 101: How substations help prepare power for your home

Last week we discussed how OPPD uses substation transformers to increase the voltage of electricity so that it will travel as efficiently as possible across transmission lines. 

But that high-voltage power can’t go straight to the homes and businesses served by OPPD. Once the electricity travels across transmission lines, it has to go to other substations, where the voltage is decreased through a series of steps.  

From there, the lower-voltage power travels out of the substation on distribution lines, which are the power lines you commonly see in and around your neighborhood. 

Check out this week’s video to learn more about how this process works and why OPPD increases then decreases the voltage of the electricity it produces before that power arrives at your home. 

And come back next week, when we’ll discuss the next step in the process – sending power into neighborhoods like yours on distribution lines.