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The potential differences produced by an alternator at a power station are limited to around 25-30 kV due to the physical size required of such machines to accommodate the machine's armature conductors. These voltages are far too low for transmission purposes.

For a given load, the higher the supply voltage, the lower the resulting load current. So very high voltages are required to transmit electrical energy, otherwise the resulting load current will cause (1) enormous voltage drops along the transmission lines, (b) large energy losses along the lines, and (3) the need for conductors with impractically-large cross-sectional areas (meaning they will be far too heavy to hang from transmission towers!).

Accordingly, the voltage generated at a power station must be 'stepped up', using Transformers, to very high voltages (in the UK, up to 400 kV; in countries where very large distances are involved, even higher than this). Energy at these voltages are then transmitted to 'load centres' (usually at the outskirts of towns or cities), where they are 'stepped down' to lower values for distribution purposes.

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