How are homes and workplaces connected with different energy supplies from different providers?
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They are not physically.
Based on the consumption of Gas and electrocity they calculate an amount which they buy from different suppliers.
So let’s say your Region is supplied by 3 different suppliers then your demand is factored in that Piece of the pie, but you and your neighbour who is on another supplier receives the same gas, but his little Piece of demand is attributed to the other supplier.
I think this is a very simplified Version of what’s going on
It’s not. The same way your different internet and mobile data providers work, they rent out the lines and towers from someone else.
Just think of all the electricity or gas that all the houses coming from a giant pool. Each house meters how much it uses and reports it to a different company. All the companies feed into the same pool.
One comes in a pipe, the other comes in a wire. Different companies own the pipe and the wire.
The same way as the money in the ATM is not physically put in there by your bank, having been removed from your account.
Each utility has a “main” coming into your home. A pipe for gas, a pipe for water, a wire for electricity, etc.
Each of these is connected to a meter that tracks how much water/gas/electricity your house uses in a specific timeframe, typically monthly. They then bill you accordingly.
Basically there is a single common transmission/distribution system. Every house gets its electricity and gas out of the same common network, and every supplier puts gas and electricity into the same common network. A meter at your house measures how much you take out, and the supplier puts the equivalent amount in (or pays someone else to put it in for them). The connection between you and your specific supplier is notional only. It’s a bit like putting money in the bank. If I deposit some cash at the bank and later take it out, I’m not getting the same actual coins or banknotes out, but what I get out is interchangeable with it.
I used to work for a gas and electric company in Houston. Here’s how it works, at least in a deregulated market like Texas:
The gas company actually had a local monopoly, so I can’t speak to that, but for electric: the electric company owns and maintains the transmission lines, the electric power is produced by third party companies, and the power is sold by other third party companies.
So for example: You want to buy service that is 100% renewable energy (which is an option in Texas if you choose). You decide to go with CrunchyHippy Energy. CrunchyHippy Energy does not produce any electricity, but rather works as a power reseller. CrunchyHippy Energy only buys power from BlueWater Energy (also made up) who produces electricity using wind, solar, and hydro power for say 5 cents per killowatt hour. BlueWater Energy pays centerpoint energy a transmission fee to be able to transmit power into the electric grid (which is passed on to the reseller and eventually the consumer as part of their fees). CrunchyHippy then sells that energy for 9 cents per killowatt hour to the home. You’ll notice, however, that any time you need to report an outage or have service done on your electric lines, it’s not CrunchyHippy that comes and does the work. It will always be centerpoint energy who does the work, because they own and maintain those transmission lines.
I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but here in australia the distributor and the retailer are seperate.
The distrobutor owns maintains poles and wires and some generation. The retailer pays them to support their customer.
I doesnt make sense to run multiple poles and wires so they are shared.
As others have said a bucket with holes is a great analogy, retailer chooses and pays the water mix that goes into the bucket. Of they use 10L they must pay to put 10L in. The crazy thing is you generally have a fixed tarif, but here the NEM (national energy market) has spot prices down to the small time increments.
Imagine one home that uses electricity from the grid, but they own a large propane tank, and twice a year they pay a propane truck to come and fill it.
Or…a home that uses natural gas from the municipal gas supplier, but they have solar panels that charge a battery, and then an inverter converts battery power to 120V AC to run their house.
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