Alternating current

Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that

periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude
continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC),
which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the
form in which electric power is delivered to businesses and
residences, and it is the form of electrical energy that
consumers typically use when they plug kitchen appliances,
televisions, fans and electric lamps into a wall socket. The Alternating current (green curve). The
abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply horizontal axis measures time (it also
alternating and direct, respectively, as when they modify represents zero voltage/current); the
vertical, current or voltage.
current or voltage.[1][2]

The usual waveform of alternating current in most electric

power circuits is a sine wave, whose positive half-period corresponds with positive direction of the
current and vice versa (the full period is called a cycle). "Alternating current" most commonly refers
to power distribution, but a wide range of other applications are technically alternating current
although it is less common to describe them by that term. In many applications, like guitar amplifiers,
different waveforms are used, such as triangular waves or square waves. Audio and radio signals
carried on electrical wires are also examples of alternating current. These types of alternating current
carry information such as sound (audio) or images (video) sometimes carried by modulation of an AC
carrier signal. These currents typically alternate at higher frequencies than those used in power
transmission.

Transmission, distribution, and domestic power supply

Electrical energy is distributed as alternating current because AC voltage may be increased or
decreased with a transformer. This allows the power to be transmitted through power lines efficiently
at high voltage, which reduces the energy lost as heat due to resistance of the wire, and transformed to
a lower, safer voltage for use. Use of a higher voltage leads to significantly more efficient transmission
of power. The power losses ( ) in the wire are a product of the square of the current ( I ) and the
resistance (R) of the wire, described by the formula:

This means that when transmitting a fixed power on a given wire, if the current is halved (i.e. the
voltage is doubled), the power loss due to the wire's resistance will be reduced to one quarter.

The power transmitted is equal to the product of the current and the voltage (assuming no phase
difference); that is,
Consequently, power transmitted at a higher voltage requires
less loss-producing current than for the same power at a lower
voltage. Power is often transmitted at hundreds of kilovolts on
pylons, and transformed down to tens of kilovolts to be
transmitted on lower level lines, and finally transformed down
to 100 V – 240 V for domestic use. A schematic representation of long
distance electric power transmission.
High voltages have disadvantages, such as the increased From left to right: G=generator, U=step-
insulation required, and generally increased difficulty in their up transformer, V=voltage at beginning of
safe handling. In a power plant, energy is generated at a transmission line, Pt=power entering
transmission line, I=current in wires,
convenient voltage for the design of a generator, and then
R=total resistance in wires, Pw=power
stepped up to a high voltage for transmission. Near the loads, lost in transmission line, Pe=power
the transmission voltage is stepped down to the voltages used reaching the end of the transmission line,
by equipment. Consumer voltages vary somewhat depending D=step-down transformer, C=consumers.
on the country and size of load, but generally motors and
lighting are built to use up to a few hundred volts between
phases. The voltage delivered to equipment such as lighting
and motor loads is standardized, with an allowable range of
voltage over which equipment is expected to operate.
Standard power utilization voltages and percentage tolerance
vary in the different mains power systems found in the world.

High-voltage direct-current (HVDC) electric power

transmission systems have become more viable as technology
has provided efficient means of changing the voltage of DC
power. Transmission with high voltage direct current was not Three-phase high-voltage electric power
feasible in the early days of electric power transmission, as transmission lines use alternating
there was then no economically viable way to step the voltage currents to distribute power over long
distances between electric generation
of DC down for end user applications such as lighting
plants and consumers. The lines in the
incandescent bulbs.
picture are located in eastern Utah.

Three-phase electrical generation is very common. The

simplest way is to use three separate coils in the generator stator, physically offset by an angle of 120°
(one-third of a complete 360° phase) to each other. Three current waveforms are produced that are
equal in magnitude and 120° out of phase to each other. If coils are added opposite to these (60°
spacing), they generate the same phases with reverse polarity and so can be simply wired together. In
practice, higher pole orders are commonly used. For example, a 12-pole machine would have 36 coils
(10° spacing). The advantage is that lower rotational speeds can be used to generate the same
frequency. For example, a 2-pole machine running at 3600 rpm and a 12-pole machine running at
600 rpm produce the same frequency; the lower speed is preferable for larger machines. If the load on
a three-phase system is balanced equally among the phases, no current flows through the neutral
point. Even in the worst-case unbalanced (linear) load, the neutral current will not exceed the highest
of the phase currents. Non-linear loads (e.g. the switch-mode power supplies widely used) may
require an oversized neutral bus and neutral conductor in the upstream distribution panel to handle
harmonics. Harmonics can cause neutral conductor current levels to exceed that of one or all phase
conductors.

For three-phase at utilization voltages a four-wire system is often used. When stepping down three-
phase, a transformer with a Delta (3-wire) primary and a Star (4-wire, center-earthed) secondary is
often used so there is no need for a neutral on the supply side. For smaller customers (just how small
varies by country and age of the installation) only a single phase and neutral, or two phases and
neutral, are taken to the property. For larger installations, all three phases and neutral are taken to
the main distribution panel. From the three-phase main panel, both single and three-phase circuits
may lead off. Three-wire single-phase systems, with a single center-tapped transformer giving two live
conductors, is a common distribution scheme for residential and small commercial buildings in North
America. This arrangement is sometimes incorrectly referred to as two phase. A similar method is
used for a different reason on construction sites in the UK. Small power tools and lighting are
supposed to be supplied by a local center-tapped transformer with a voltage of 55 V between each
power conductor and earth. This significantly reduces the risk of electric shock in the event that one of
the live conductors becomes exposed through an equipment fault whilst still allowing a reasonable
voltage of 110 V between the two conductors for running the tools.

An additional wire, called the bond (or earth) wire, is often connected between non-current-carrying
metal enclosures and earth ground. This conductor provides protection from electric shock due to
accidental contact of circuit conductors with the metal chassis of portable appliances and tools.
Bonding all non-current-carrying metal parts into one complete system ensures there is always a low
electrical impedance path to ground sufficient to carry any fault current for as long as it takes for the
system to clear the fault. This low impedance path allows the maximum amount of fault current,
causing the overcurrent protection device (breakers, fuses) to trip or burn out as quickly as possible,
bringing the electrical system to a safe state. All bond wires are bonded to ground at the main service
panel, as is the neutral/identified conductor if present.

AC power supply frequencies

The frequency of the electrical system varies by country and sometimes within a country; most electric
power is generated at either 50 or 60 Hz. Some countries have a mixture of 50 Hz and 60 Hz supplies,
notably electricity power transmission in Japan.

Low frequency
A low frequency eases the design of electric motors, particularly for hoisting, crushing and rolling
applications, and commutator-type traction motors for applications such as railways. However, low
frequency also causes noticeable flicker in arc lamps and incandescent light bulbs. The use of lower
frequencies also provided the advantage of lower transmission losses, which are proportional to
frequency.
The original Niagara Falls generators were built to produce 25 Hz power, as a compromise between
low frequency for traction and heavy induction motors, while still allowing incandescent lighting to
operate (although with noticeable flicker). Most of the 25 Hz residential and commercial customers
for Niagara Falls power were converted to 60 Hz by the late 1950s, although some 25 Hz industrial
customers still existed as of the start of the 21st century. 16.7 Hz power (formerly 16 2/3 Hz) is still
used in some European rail systems, such as in Austria, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

High frequency
Off-shore, military, textile industry, marine, aircraft, and spacecraft applications sometimes use
400 Hz, for benefits of reduced weight of apparatus or higher motor speeds. Computer mainframe
systems were often powered by 400 Hz or 415 Hz for benefits of ripple reduction while using smaller
internal AC to DC conversion units.

Effects at high frequencies

A direct current flows uniformly throughout the cross-section of a homogeneous electrically
conducting wire. An alternating current of any frequency is forced away from the wire's center, toward
its outer surface. This is because an alternating current (which is the result of the acceleration of
electric charge) creates electromagnetic waves (a phenomenon known as electromagnetic radiation).
Electric conductors are not conducive to electromagnetic waves (a perfect electric conductor prohibits
all electromagnetic waves within its boundary), so a wire that is made of a non-perfect conductor (a
conductor with finite, rather than infinite, electrical conductivity) pushes the alternating current,
along with their associated electromagnetic fields, away from the wire's center. The phenomenon of
alternating current being pushed away from the center of the conductor is called skin effect, and a
direct current does not exhibit this effect, since a direct current does not create electromagnetic
waves.

At very high frequencies, the current no longer flows in the wire, but effectively flows on the surface of
the wire, within a thickness of a few skin depths. The skin depth is the thickness at which the current
density is reduced by 63%. Even at relatively low frequencies used for power transmission (50 Hz –
60 Hz), non-uniform distribution of current still occurs in sufficiently thick conductors. For example,
the skin depth of a copper conductor is approximately 8.57 mm at 60 Hz, so high-current conductors
are usually hollow to reduce their mass and cost. This tendency of alternating current to flow
predominantly in the periphery of conductors reduces the effective cross-section of the conductor.
This increases the effective AC resistance of the conductor since resistance is inversely proportional to
the cross-sectional area. A conductor's AC resistance is higher than its DC resistance, causing a higher
energy loss due to Ohmic heating (also called I2R loss).

Techniques for reducing AC resistance

For low to medium frequencies, conductors can be divided into stranded wires, each insulated from
the others, with the relative positions of individual strands specially arranged within the conductor
bundle. Wire constructed using this technique is called Litz wire. This measure helps to partially
mitigate skin effect by forcing more equal current throughout the total cross section of the stranded
conductors. Litz wire is used for making high-Q inductors, reducing losses in flexible conductors
carrying very high currents at lower frequencies, and in the windings of devices carrying higher radio
frequency current (up to hundreds of kilohertz), such as switch-mode power supplies and radio
frequency transformers.

Techniques for reducing radiation loss

As written above, an alternating current is made of electric charge under periodic acceleration, which
causes radiation of electromagnetic waves. Energy that is radiated is lost. Depending on the
frequency, different techniques are used to minimize the loss due to radiation.

Twisted pairs
At frequencies up to about 1 GHz, pairs of wires are twisted together in a cable, forming a twisted pair.
This reduces losses from electromagnetic radiation and inductive coupling. A twisted pair must be
used with a balanced signaling system so that the two wires carry equal but opposite currents. Each
wire in a twisted pair radiates a signal, but it is effectively canceled by radiation from the other wire,
resulting in almost no radiation loss.

Coaxial cables
Coaxial cables are commonly used at audio frequencies and above for convenience. A coaxial cable has
a conductive wire inside a conductive tube, separated by a dielectric layer. The current flowing on the
surface of the inner conductor is equal and opposite to the current flowing on the inner surface of the
outer tube. The electromagnetic field is thus completely contained within the tube, and (ideally) no
energy is lost to radiation or coupling outside the tube. Coaxial cables have acceptably small losses for
frequencies up to about 5 GHz. For microwave frequencies greater than 5 GHz, the losses (due mainly
to the dielectric separating the inner and outer tubes being a non-ideal insulator) become too large,
making waveguides a more efficient medium for transmitting energy. Coaxial cables often use a
perforated dielectric layer to separate the inner and outer conductors in order to minimize the power
dissipated by the dielectric.

Waveguides
Waveguides are similar to coaxial cables, as both consist of tubes, with the biggest difference being
that waveguides have no inner conductor. Waveguides can have any arbitrary cross section, but
rectangular cross sections are the most common. Because waveguides do not have an inner conductor
to carry a return current, waveguides cannot deliver energy by means of an electric current, but rather
by means of a guided electromagnetic field. Although surface currents do flow on the inner walls of
the waveguides, those surface currents do not carry power. Power is carried by the guided
electromagnetic fields. The surface currents are set up by the guided electromagnetic fields and have
the effect of keeping the fields inside the waveguide and preventing leakage of the fields to the space
outside the waveguide. Waveguides have dimensions comparable to the wavelength of the alternating
current to be transmitted, so they are feasible only at microwave frequencies. In addition to this
mechanical feasibility, electrical resistance of the non-ideal metals forming the walls of the waveguide
causes dissipation of power (surface currents flowing on lossy conductors dissipate power). At higher
frequencies, the power lost to this dissipation becomes unacceptably large.
Fiber optics
At frequencies greater than 200 GHz, waveguide dimensions become impractically small, and the
ohmic losses in the waveguide walls become large. Instead, fiber optics, which are a form of dielectric
waveguides, can be used. For such frequencies, the concepts of voltages and currents are no longer
used.

Formulation
Alternating currents are accompanied (or caused) by
alternating voltages. An AC voltage v can be described
mathematically as a function of time by the following
equation:

where

is the peak voltage (unit: volt),

is the angular frequency (unit: radians per second).
The angular frequency is related to the physical frequency,
(unit: hertz), which represents the number of cycles per
second, by the equation . A sinusoidal alternating voltage.
is the time (unit: second).
1. Peak,
The peak-to-peak value of an AC voltage is defined as the
2. Peak-to-peak amplitude,
difference between its positive peak and its negative peak.
3. Effective value,
Since the maximum value of is +1 and the minimum
4. Period
value is −1, an AC voltage swings between and .
The peak-to-peak voltage, usually written as or , is
therefore .

Root mean square voltage

Below an AC waveform (with no DC component) is assumed.

The RMS voltage is the square root of the mean over one cycle of the square of the instantaneous
voltage.

For an arbitrary periodic waveform of period :

For a sinusoidal voltage:

 A sine wave, over one cycle (360°). The
dashed line represents the root mean
square (RMS) value at (about
0.707).
where the trigonometric identity

has been used and the factor is called the crest factor,
which varies for different waveforms.
For a triangle waveform centered about zero

For a square waveform centered about zero

Power
The relationship between voltage and the power delivered is:

where represents a load resistance.

Rather than using instantaneous power, , it is more practical to use a time-averaged power (where
the averaging is performed over any integer number of cycles). Therefore, AC voltage is often
expressed as a root mean square (RMS) value, written as , because

Power oscillation

For this reason, AC power's waveform becomes Full-wave rectified sine, and its fundamental
frequency is double that of the voltage's.
Examples of alternating current
To illustrate these concepts, consider a 230 V AC mains supply used in many countries around the
world. It is so called because its root mean square value is 230 V. This means that the time-averaged
power delivered is equivalent to the power delivered by a DC voltage of 230 V. To determine
the peak voltage (amplitude), we can rearrange the above equation to:

For 230 V AC, the peak voltage is therefore , which is about 325 V, and the peak
power is , that is 460 RW. During the course of one cycle (two cycle as the
power) the voltage rises from zero to 325 V, the power from zero to 460 RW, and both falls through
zero. Next, the voltage descends to reverse direction, −325 V, but the power ascends again to 460 RW,
and both returns to zero.

Information transmission
Alternating current is used to transmit information, as in the cases of telephone and cable television.
Information signals are carried over a wide range of AC frequencies. POTS telephone signals have a
frequency of about 3 kHz, close to the baseband audio frequency. Cable television and other cable-
transmitted information currents may alternate at frequencies of tens to thousands of megahertz.
These frequencies are similar to the electromagnetic wave frequencies often used to transmit the same
types of information over the air.

History
The first alternator to produce alternating current was an electric generator based on Michael
Faraday's principles constructed by the French instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii in 1832.[3] Pixii later
added a commutator to his device to produce the (then) more commonly used direct current. The
earliest recorded practical application of alternating current is by Guillaume Duchenne, inventor and
developer of electrotherapy. In 1855, he announced that AC was superior to direct current for
electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions.[4] Alternating current technology was developed
further by the Hungarian Ganz Works company in the 1870s, and, in the 1880s, by Sebastian Ziani de
Ferranti, Lucien Gaulard, and Galileo Ferraris.

In 1876, Russian engineer Pavel Yablochkov invented a lighting system where sets of induction coils
were installed along a high-voltage AC line. Instead of changing voltage, the primary windings
transferred power to the secondary windings which were connected to one or several electric candles
(arc lamps) of his own design,[5][6] used to keep the failure of one lamp from disabling the entire
circuit.[5] In 1878, the Ganz factory, Budapest, Hungary, began manufacturing equipment for electric
lighting and, by 1883, had installed over fifty systems in Austria-Hungary. Their AC systems used arc
and incandescent lamps, generators, and other equipment.[7]

Transformers
The development of the alternating current transformer to change voltage from low to high level and
back, allowed generation and consumption at low voltages and transmission, over great distances, at
high voltage, with savings in the cost of conductors and energy losses. A bipolar open-core power
transformer developed by Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs was demonstrated in London in
1881, and attracted the interest of Westinghouse. They exhibited an AC system powering arc and
incandescent lights was installed along five railway stations for the Metropolitan Railway in London
and a single-phase multiple-user AC distribution system Turin in 1884.[8] These early induction coils
with open magnetic circuits were inefficient at transferring power to loads. Until about 1880, the
paradigm for AC power transmission from a high voltage supply to a low voltage load was a series
circuit. Open-core transformers with a ratio near 1:1 were connected with their primaries in series to
allow use of a high voltage for transmission while presenting a low voltage to the lamps. The inherent
flaw in this method was that turning off a single lamp (or other electric device) affected the voltage
supplied to all others on the same circuit. Many adjustable transformer designs were introduced to
compensate for this problematic characteristic of the series circuit, including those employing
methods of adjusting the core or bypassing the magnetic flux around part of a coil.[9] The direct
current systems did not have these drawbacks, giving it significant advantages over early AC systems.

In the UK, Sebastian de Ferranti, who had been developing AC generators and transformers in
London since 1882, redesigned the AC system at the Grosvenor Gallery power station in 1886 for the
London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCo) including alternators of his own design and open core
transformer designs with serial connections for utilization loads - similar to Gaulard and Gibbs.[10] In
1890, he designed their power station at Deptford[11] and converted the Grosvenor Gallery station
across the Thames into an electrical substation, showing the way to integrate older plants into a
universal AC supply system.[12]

In the autumn of 1884, Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and

Miksa Déri (ZBD), three engineers associated with the Ganz
Works of Budapest, determined that open-core devices were
impractical, as they were incapable of reliably regulating
voltage.[13] Bláthy had suggested the use of closed cores,
Zipernowsky had suggested the use of parallel shunt
connections, and Déri had performed the experiments;[14] In
their joint 1885 patent applications for novel transformers
(later called ZBD transformers), they described two designs The Hungarian ZBD Team (Károly
Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri),
with closed magnetic circuits where copper windings were
inventors of the first high efficiency,
either wound around a ring core of iron wires or else
closed-core shunt connection transformer
surrounded by a core of iron wires.[9] In both designs, the
magnetic flux linking the primary and secondary windings
traveled almost entirely within the confines of the iron core, with no intentional path through air (see
toroidal cores). The new transformers were 3.4 times more efficient than the open-core bipolar
devices of Gaulard and Gibbs.[15] The Ganz factory in 1884
shipped the world's first five high-efficiency AC
transformers.[16] This first unit had been manufactured to the
following specifications: 1,400 W, 40 Hz, 120:72 V, 11.6:19.4
A, ratio 1.67:1, one-phase, shell form.[16]

The ZBD patents included two other major interrelated

innovations: one concerning the use of parallel connected,
instead of series connected, utilization loads, the other
concerning the ability to have high turns ratio transformers
such that the supply network voltage could be much higher The prototype of the ZBD transformer on
(initially 140 to 2000 V) than the voltage of utilization loads display at the Széchenyi István Memorial
(100 V initially preferred). [17][18] When employed in parallel Exhibition, Nagycenk in Hungary
connected electric distribution systems, closed-core
transformers finally made it technically and economically
feasible to provide electric power for lighting in homes, businesses and public spaces.[19][20]

The other essential milestone was the introduction of 'voltage source, voltage intensive' (VSVI)
systems'[21] by the invention of constant voltage generators in 1885.[22] In early 1885, the three
engineers also eliminated the problem of eddy current losses with the invention of the lamination of
electromagnetic cores.[23] Ottó Bláthy also invented the first AC electricity meter.[24][25][26][27]

Adoption
The AC power system was developed and adopted rapidly after 1886. In March of that year,
Westinghouse engineer William Stanley, designing a system based on the Gaulard and Gibbs
transformer,[28] demonstrated a lighting system in Great Barrington: A Siemens generator's voltage of
500 volts was converted into 3000 volts, and then the voltage was stepped down to 500 volts by six
Westinghouse transformers. With this setup, the Westinghouse company successfully powered thirty
100-volt incandescent bulbs in twenty shops along the main street of Great Barrington.[29][30] By the
fall of that year Ganz engineers installed a ZBD transformer power system with AC generators in
Rome.[31]

Based on Stanley's success, the new Westinghouse Electric[32] went on to develop alternating current
(AC) electric infrastructure throughout the United States. The spread of Westinghouse and other AC
systems triggered a push back in late 1887 by Thomas Edison (a proponent of direct current), who
attempted to discredit alternating current as too dangerous in a public campaign called the "war of the
currents".

In 1888, alternating current systems gained further viability with the introduction of a functional AC
motor, something these systems had lacked up till then. The design, an induction motor, was
independently invented by Galileo Ferraris and Nikola Tesla (with Tesla's design being licensed by
Westinghouse in the US). This design was independently further developed into the modern practical
three-phase form by Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown in Germany on
one side,[33] and Jonas Wenström in Sweden on the other, though Brown favored the two-phase
system.
The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, constructed in
1890, was among the first hydroelectric alternating current
power plants. A long-distance transmission of single-phase
electricity from a hydroelectric generating plant in Oregon at
Willamette Falls sent power fourteen miles downriver to
downtown Portland for street lighting in 1890.[34] In 1891,
another transmission system was installed in Telluride
Colorado.[35] The first three-phase system was established in
1891 in Frankfurt, Germany. The Tivoli–Rome transmission
was completed in 1892.[36] The San Antonio Canyon Westinghouse Early AC System 1887
Generator was the third commercial single-phase (US patent 373035 ([Link]
hydroelectric AC power plant in the United States to provide rg/web/20090325121254/[Link]
long-distance electricity. It was completed on December 31, [Link]/patents/[Link]))
1892, by Almarian William Decker to provide power to the city
of Pomona, California, which was 14 miles away. Meanwhile,
the possibility of transferring electrical power from a waterfall at a distance was explored at the
Grängesberg mine in Sweden. A 45 m fall at Hällsjön, Smedjebackens kommun, where a small iron
work had been located, was selected. In 1893, a three-phase 9.5 kv system was used to transfer 400
horsepower a distance of 15 km, becoming the first commercial application.[37] In 1893, Westinghouse
built an alternating current system for the Chicago World Exposition.[36] In 1893, Decker designed
the first American commercial three-phase power plant using alternating current—the hydroelectric
Mill Creek No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant near Redlands, California. Decker's design incorporated 10 kV
three-phase transmission and established the standards for the complete system of generation,
transmission and motors used in USA today. The original Niagara Falls Adams Power Plant with three
two-phase generators was put into operation in August 1895, but was connected to the remote
transmission system only in 1896. The Jaruga Hydroelectric Power Plant in Croatia was set in
operation two days later, on 28 August 1895. Its generator (42 Hz, 240 kW) was made and installed by
the Hungarian company Ganz, while the transmission line from the power plant to the City of Šibenik
was 11.5 kilometers (7.1 mi) long, and the municipal distribution grid 3000 V/110 V included six
transforming stations.[36]

Alternating current circuit theory developed rapidly in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th
century. Notable contributors to the theoretical basis of alternating current calculations include
Charles Steinmetz, Oliver Heaviside, and many others.[38][39] Calculations in unbalanced three-phase
systems were simplified by the symmetrical components methods discussed by Charles LeGeyt
Fortescue in 1918.

See also
AC power
Electronics portal
Electrical wiring
Heavy-duty power plugs Energy portal
Hertz
Leading and lagging current
Mains electricity by country