Why High Voltage?

Losses go as current squared

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Transmission losses $= I^2R$.
• For fixed power, higher voltage means lower current: 10× the voltage gives 1/100 of the losses.
• Transformers make high-voltage transmission possible.

Steps

1. Heating the wires
2. Choose the voltage
3. Heat in the wires
4. Under the sea
5. Losses at 10 kV
6. Ten times the voltage