: if you disconnect a power cable, where does the electricity that is still in the cable go?
In: 40
The grid is basically a machine that balances generation of electricity with consumption in real time.
Any time a load is added or subtracted, a corresponding amount of generation must occur. There is a little wiggle room, but not much.
So if a large power cable is cut, the grid either has to find an alternative destination for the supply, or it needs to cut supply by that amount.
If the question is where the physical electricity in the wire goes, the best answer is that there is no electricity in the wire to go anywhere. The confusion likely comes from our shorthand thinking about electricity in that we think of it like water in a pipe. It’s not really. That’s a useful analogy that’s not confusing for people, but it falls apart when too many questions get asked… Because it’s not really the way things work. Think of a wire more like a phone line that tells a device in a circuit to consume power. So when the wire is cut, the flow of information stops rather than a bunch of electrons spill out on the ground.
This is still not completely accurate. Unfortunately there’s no EILI5 for how electricity actually works. Which is why people just pretend it’s angry pixies in a pipe. It’s close enough that the average Joe off the street can wire an outlet.
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