Whether electricity is produced from natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear, hydroelectric systems, wind or solar, it goes through three basic production stages – generation, transmission and distribution. Each stage does pretty much what it says on the tin. Electricity is generated through the conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy, transmitted to regional and local substations, and distributed for industrial, commercial and residential use.
We’re all familiar with domestic distribution boards – every home has one. They house the circuit breakers and ground leakage protection units, which take in power from a transformer or upstream panel and distribute it to various individual circuits or consumer points. They typically have a single incoming power source and include a main circuit breaker and a residual current or earth leakage protection device.
The core function of any distribution board is to allow individual circuits to draw power from correctly-rated circuit breakers and isolate those same circuits if needed, without disrupting the rest of the supply. Its most important function, however, is one of safety, and they are built with short circuit as well as overload protection systems. This offers essential protection to people and equipment against electric shock, or fire caused by ground faults.
