Electricity Transmission from the Edison Electric Institute

The U.S. electrical transmission grid consists of more than 200000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines (230 Kilovolts and bigger). Transmission lines carry electricity from power plants to areas where electricity is needed and necessary. Electricity travels at approximately the speed of light, arriving at the end user's home for consumption. Shareholder-owned electric firms invested about $49 billion in the state's transmission process from 2000 to 2007, and are expected to spend even more in the future. For electricity transmission over large areas, it must be ensurd dthat supply and demand for electricity keep balanced, otherwise it could be quite dangerous.