Electrical energy is the energy that powers our everyday life and without it, everything that uses electrical current wouldn’t work, so our industry and transportation systems, our appliances, phones, computers and heating systems would become useless.
Energy is the ability to do work, and the work is done when a force moves an object.
What is Electrical Energy? – Definition
Electrical energy is the energy stored in a charged particle that is located inside an electric field.
Electrical energy is a form of electromagnetic force that moves the charged particles through the wires to create electrical current or electricity, and this electricity (electrical current) is used to do work in our society (it powers our appliances, our gadgets, the transportation sector, the industry, and actually the entire society).
What is An Electric Field?
An electric field is the area surrounding a charged particle.
The electric field is actually created by the charged particles because they exert force on the other charged particles within the field.
The electric field will apply the force on the charged particles making them to move (to do work).
What is Potential Energy?
Electrical energy is considered potential energy because is the energy stored in an object due to the position of the object.
The object in this case is the charged particle and the position of the particle is within the electric field.
The electric potential is measured in volts, and represents the amount of work needed to move a positively charged particle from a reference point to a specific point in the electric field without producing an acceleration of the particle.
Uses of Electrical Energy
We are using electrical energy to move charged particles through wires, from the power plant to our homes and businesses.
This movement of the charged particles through the wire is called electric current or simply electricity and is used to run our appliances and gadgets.
A TV converts electrical energy into light and sound energy, a radio converts electrical energy into sound energy, an electric oven converts electrical energy into thermal energy, a light bulb uses electrical energy to produce light energy, etc.
A battery has positive and negative terminals, which creates an electric potential (the ability to move a charge).
The electric potential (the potential to do work) is greater if the voltage is higher.
If the terminals of the battery are connected through a wire, the electric current (electricity) will move through the wire and will do work such as lighting a bulb.
We know that electricity is the flow of excess electrons (negatively charges particles) from one atom to another.
The capacity of a particular substance or element to allow the flow of electrons is called connectivity and depends on the structure of its atoms.
Metals have crystal-like structures called lattices that consist of several individual atoms and the electrons of the individual atoms can travel freely within the lattice.
The readiness of the metallic atoms to lose electrons makes them excellent conductors, but there are also several good non-metallic conductors.
Before being converted into other forms of energy, electrical energy is only electrical potential energy.
Today, we can see electrical energy all around us even if we are in the woods or in the wilderness (our mobile phone or our radio relies on this form of energy to work).
Every electric device runs using electrical energy.
Examples of Electrical Energy
Energy can’t be created, it can only change its form, so electrical energy is generated today by converting other forms of energy into electricity.
Kinetic Energy
Chemical energy can be found in batteries and in thermal power plants that burn fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and biomass (waste wood, energy crops, trash, etc.).
Chemical energy present in fossil fuels or biomass is converted into kinetic energy (the hot steam) due to the fact that water is heated by the burning fossil fuels.
The kinetic energy of the steam is used to rotate a turbine (mechanical energy), which is then turned into electrical potential energy by the generator connected to the rotating turbine.
In nuclear power plants, the energy (heat) obtained due to the controlled nuclear reactions is used to heat water and generate steam (kinetic energy), which is used again to rotate a turbine (mechanical energy), and produce electrical potential energy using a generator.
Potential Energy
In the case of hydroelectric power plants we are talking about potential energy that can be found in water that is located at higher altitude, and when the water falls the potential energy becomes kinetic energy.
The flow of falling water will rotate the turbine (kinetic energy becomes mechanical energy), and the generator will turn the mechanical energy into electric potential energy.
The energy generated this way is called electric potential energy because was never used.
When used to power an electric device, the electric potential energy automatically becomes electrical energy.
