Data centers and energy
🔌 How the Power Grid Works
Learn the units, machines, markets and regulators behind the electric grid, read a power bill line by line, and understand a utility's resource plan or rate case well enough to take part and ask sharp questions.
- 1Electricity Units: Volts, Watts and Kilowatt-HoursLearn the handful of units behind every energy debate, convert between them with simple arithmetic, and see why 'powers 50,000 homes' is a slippery claim.14 min
- 2From Power Plant to OutletFollow electricity from the generator through step-up transformers, high-voltage lines, substations and neighborhood wires to the wall, and learn why the whole system hums at 60 hertz.15 min
- 3Balancing Supply and Demand Every SecondSee how grid operators match generation to demand moment by moment using load forecasts, a stack of baseload, intermediate and peaking plants, reserves and the inertia of spinning machines.15 min
- 4Capacity vs. Energy and Capacity FactorUse EIA's 2025 capacity factors to compare what different plant types actually produce, and learn why a megawatt of solar, wind, gas and nuclear are not the same thing.16 min
- 5Who Runs the GridSort out investor-owned utilities, co-ops, city utilities and federal power, learn what balancing authorities and RTOs do, and get current on the West's market changes: the Western EIM, EDAM and Markets+.17 min
- 6Who Regulates the GridLearn what FERC, NERC and state commissions like the Idaho PUC each control, and follow a general rate case from filing to final order using Idaho Power's 2025 case as a real example.16 min
- 7How Your Power Bill Is BuiltTake a power bill apart line by line: the fixed service charge, energy charges, demand charges, rate classes and the fuel and power cost adjustments that change bills between rate cases.15 min
- 8Reliability and the Grid's FutureLearn what causes blackouts, what the 2021 and 2022 winter storms showed, what NERC's 2025 long-term assessment projects as data centers and electrification drive demand, and how to read a utility's integrated resource plan.18 min