Shockingly, the details aren’t hard to understand. 

• What electricity is and how it works
  

  Definition. Electricity is the presence and flow of electrical charge, resulting from activity created between electrons. Electricity flows through currents or exists ready to work (as in batteries). Consumers use it to create light, mechanical power, heat, etc.

• Stages of Electricity.
  

  Fuel. Electricity is generated through combustion or consumption of natural resources – renewables (like solar, wind, biomass, methane capture, etc.) or non-renewable fuels (fossil fuels like coal and natural gas).
  
  Environmental impacts include the changes that resource extraction or development makes to the surrounding land, and the uses it is suitable for afterward (if any).
  
  Processing and Generation. To create electricity, the fuel must be processed. This might happen at a wind farm, where air currents spin the turbines directly. Or, a fuel like coal must be transported to a power plant, where it is combusted and heats a material (such as water, which in turn becomes stream) that powers a turbine and creates electricity.
  
  Electricity is only one product of the generation stage. Depending on the fuel source, different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants may be produced as well. Generation is usually electricity’s highest point of environmental impact.
  
  Dispatch and Transmission. Once the power is generated, the facility must dispatch it. Electrical energy cannot be stored.
  
  At this point, electricity enters the grid through a substation located at the facility. It then travels along very high-voltage transmission lines that move the energy very quickly over long distances. In part, this speed is to overcome resistance on the lines.
  
  Distribution and Consumption.
  Transmission lines end at substations that are located at the edges of various energy markets, like a city or industrial facility. Now distribution begins - a series of transformers turns the current back down to lower, more user-friendly voltages. The power can then travel safely through distribution lines that carry electricity to consumers.
  
  Power enters homes, factories, farms, and offices through a meter. The consumer then uses an appliance or other mechanism that changes the electricity into light, heat, mechanical power, etc.
  

• The Grid.
  The “grid” is actually multiple, often overlapping sets of grids – interlocking systems of power generators, transmission and distribution wires, substations, transformers, etc., and the human communications systems that oversee them all.
  
  The grid’s electrical load must be managed to meet consumer demand. Failure to do so results in blackouts. Managing the grid involves maintaining base load (the minimum power required to run the grid), integrating variable energy sources (like wind and solar), and responding to peak load (which differs according to seasons and times of day).
  
  Ideally, the grid is designed with many redundant pathways, the better to recover quickly after extreme weather events, etc. 
  
• Who’s Who in Electricity.
  The electrical system is moving from a former monopoly to a more competitive market. Because there is no federal legislation to the contrary, each state is deregulating and/or restructuring slightly differently.
  
  Since the grid’s failure could be economically and socially catastrophic, electricity is still a highly regulated industry.
  
  

  Electricity generators and owners of transmission lines. Most fall into four main categories.
  

  Investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Large organizations that usually own both generation facilities and transmission lines. They sell electricity on the wholesale and retail markets.
  
  Municipal utilities. These vary – some might own generation, some might own some transmission as well, and they usually serve limited geographic areas.
  
  Electrical cooperatives. Traditionally these served rural areas. Some are quite large and own generation and transmission. Some are much smaller and are only involved in distribution and the retail market.
  
  Independent operators. Various private, often entrepreneurial types involved in both generation and transmission, usually on smaller scales. For example, a county could decide to develop a community wind farm.
  
  Independent transmission companies privately construct and finance transmission lines, and then sell space on the lines to generators needing to get their power to market.
  

  
  Regulators
  

  Federal. There is a great deal of federal oversight of electricity. Some of the most important - FERC controls policies governing safety and development of the grid, and the EPA tracks emissions from power generators.
  
  Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs). FREC delegates its part of its authority over certain territories to RTOs and ISOs, and places them in charge of a particular regional grid. Kansas is within the territory of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).
  
  RTOs and ISOs act like traffic cops for electricity. Because many generators use same transmission lines, one central authority must balance the entire load - communicating between the dispatchers at various facilities, forecasting and scheduling loads, analyzing load data, enforcing interconnection standards, etc.
  
  RTOs and ISOs provide other services to their members (IOUs, municipal generators, etc.), such as planning the expansion of transmission lines and tracking sales and purchases of power between different utilities.
  
  State. Electricity markets are controlled at the state level by rate boards, corporation commissions, etc. These administrative bodies control not only the price of electricity, but often a variety of utility activities (like land purchases for new generation). They also administer policies such as decoupling and net metering. 

• Issues Facing Electricity and Transmission. Here are just a few:
  

  Development of renewables and new transmission lines. The recent push for renewable energy means that there will be more new generation sites, such as wind farms.
  
  However, to get power to market, wind farms need transmission lines. Transmission lines, though, are expensive to build, and they must be planned with the help of an RTO. Lack of transmission lines in rural areas can be a problem in developing wind.
  
  Possible solution: Renewable Energy Enterprise Zones. Already used in California and Texas, these zones are designated by state legislatures. That way, transmission developers and planners know where to focus their resources.
  
  Integrating renewables into load management. Renewables emit less (or no) greenhouse gases. They also add fuel diversity, which helps consumers and strengthens the nation’s energy security.
  
  However, renewables like wind and solar are variable sources of power. Since the wind and sun blow and shine only part of the time, these sources don’t always generate electricity. The grid needs more stable, dispatchable sources to provide base load.
  
  Also, integrating dispatchable and variable sources is a new thing for many grid managers. The Department of Energy (DOE) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are working on studies that will produce best practices recommendations.
  
  The Midwest Wind Integration Study concluded that wind power’s variability is not a problem for a grid, up to about 25% penetration.