Safety Electrical Electricity - the basics Electricity helps in many aspects of our daily life. Electric energy in the form of electric currents can be harnessed to provide heat or air conditioning, to move things, to entertain and to communicate. Electricity begins its trip to your neighborhood at a central power plant. It travels over high voltage transmission lines that are strung on high towers. Ceramic insulators keep the high voltage electricity flowing through the power lines and away from the ground.
High voltage is reduced at substations by transformers.
Electric power is ready to use at the flip of a switch. It enters your house, school or business through a control panel and a main switch. Be sure you know where your control panel and main power switch are located. You can shut off all power in an emergency by turning the main switch off. You can also shut off power to specific devices or areas in your home by switching off the correct circuit breaker fuse.