Explain like I am five how does the electric company make the amount of power you use and not just turn on endless power. How does the power they make go to you and the amount is known?
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Electricity is made by spinning a magnet, connected to wires, connected to your house.
Suppose you have a magnet connected to wires, geared into an exercise bike’s mechanism and then pedal the bike. The other ends of the wires are connected to a TV.
When you turn on the TV, it acts like a brake on the spinning magnet. So if you’re riding on the bike and someone switches on a TV, you’ll suddenly feel like you’re riding uphill. You have to pedal with more oomph, or you will slow down.
Electrical generators constantly check whether they start running slow (or fast), and adjust to burn more (or less) fuel. If all the generators are burning near their minimum (or maximum) fuel, they tell Central Control, who tells some generators to start up (or shut down).
Nowadays we use computers for the measuring and adjusting. But originally they used various [ingenious mechanisms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor) for controlling steam power.
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