Considering the conservation of energy; what would happen under the following circumstances:
Let’s say an electric power station is isolated from the national power grid. The power station generates power for 1 nearby city. All at once, everyone turns off everything that used electricity.
Since there is no demand for current, what would happen with the electricity generated? Would the transmission lines burn out?
But let’s say that you have burn-out proof transmission lines; would there be no resistance at the generator due to the fact that there was no power being drawn from the generator?
Would the power in the line just keep increasing as the generator added more power to the already existing power in the circuit?
I have no idea how power stations operate, but I take it you are asking about electricity, not power station design. If you had a hand-cranked generator connected to a light bulb, and suddenly you remove the light bulb, what happens? The circuit is now open, so no current goes through the wires. Wires do not burn out - no current, no heat. Power does not build up on the wires because wires can’t store energy. The only thing that happens is that you suddenly find that the generator is much easier to turn.
So I can only assume that the same thing happens at a power station; the load on the turbines (which drive the generators)suddenly decrease. My guess is that some automated control detects this reduced load and cuts down the flow of steam to prevent the turbine from turning too fast.
How do you think they bring a power station generator on-line in the first place?
In oversimplified simple terms, this is what happens:
They start it up with no load, bring it up to synchronous speed, match its phase with the grid and only then is it switched over to the load.
The reverse is done to shut the power station down. It is switched over to being off-line (the equivalent of your city turning off all its lights) and only then is it turned off.
A generator will only develop as much power as the demand upto their capacity, drawing more or less fuel as required, and with its rpm kept constant by automatic governors.
This is not unlike driving a car with its cruise control on. The engine generates more or less power depending upon whether the road is flat, uphill or downhill.
There are far too many Baldwins. The only Baldwin I care for is a piano …
You miss a simple point. That if every load on the circuit is shut off the circuit is now open. There is no path for current to flow and overload anything. With no load on the output the generator will turn with little mechanical resistance. Voltatge is maintained but with no current flow therefore no power.