The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m⋅s. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor of James Watt (1736–1819), an 18th-century Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved the Newcomen engine with his own steam engine in 1776, which became fundamental for the Industrial Revolution.
>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
👉 Gigawatts in the context of Électricité de France
Électricité de France SA (French pronunciation: [elɛktʁisite də fʁɑ̃s]; lit. 'Electricity of France'), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF operates a diverse portfolio of at least 120 gigawatts of generation capacity in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In 2009, EDF was the world's largest producer of electricity. Its 56 active nuclear reactors in France are spread out over 18 sites (18 nuclear power plants). They comprise 32 reactors of 900 MWe, 20 reactors of 1,300 MWe, and 4 reactors of 1,450 MWe, all PWRs.
EDF was created on 8 April 1946 by the 1945 parliament, from the merging of various divided actors. EDF led France's post-war energy growth, with a unique focus on civil nuclear energy, through reconstruction and further industrialization within the Trente Glorieuses, being a flagship of France's new industrial landscape. In 2004, following integration into the European Common Market, EDF was privatized, although the government of France retained 84% equity. In 2017 EDF took over the majority of the reactor business Areva, in a French government-sponsored restructuring. That same year, following a wish to divest from nuclear energy, the possible closure of 17 of EDF's French nuclear power reactors by 2025 was announced. By 2022, this decision had been reversed, with the administration of president Emmanuel Macron announcing plans for a "nuclear renaissance", beginning with the projected construction of 6 EPR model 2 reactors with an option for 8 further reactors. Meanwhile, construction is ongoing on EPR model 1 reactors in France and Britain.
In this Dossier
Gigawatts in the context of Wide area synchronous grid
A wide area synchronous grid (also called an "interconnection" in North America) is a three-phase electric power grid that has regional scale or greater that operates at a synchronized utility frequency and is electrically tied together during normal system conditions. Also known as synchronous zones, the most powerful is the Northern Chinese State Grid with 1,700 gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity, while the widest region served is that of the IPS/UPS system serving most countries of the former Soviet Union. Synchronous grids with ample capacity facilitate electricity trading across wide areas. In the CESA system in 2008, over 350,000 megawatt hours were sold per day on the European Energy Exchange (EEX).
Neighbouring interconnections with the same frequency and standards can be synchronized and directly connected to form a larger interconnection, or they may share power without synchronization via high-voltage direct current power transmission lines (DC ties), solid-state transformers or variable-frequency transformers (VFTs), which permit a controlled flow of energy while also functionally isolating the independent AC frequencies of each side. Each of the interconnects in North America is synchronized at a nominal 60 Hz, while those of Europe run at 50 Hz.
Gigawatts in the context of IPS/UPS
The IPS/UPS (Russian: ЕЭС/ОЭС), also widely known as the Russian grid, is a wide area synchronous transmission grid, the Russian Unified Power System (UPS; Единая энергетическая система России [ЕЭС]) and the Integrated Power System (IPS; Объединенная энергетическая система [ОЭС]) portion of the network being the national networks of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
It has an installed generation capacity of 300 gigawatts, and produces 1,200 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year for its 280 million customers. The system spans eight time zones.
Gigawatts in the context of Coal-fired power station
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate about a third of the world's electricity, but cause many illnesses and the most early deaths per unit of energy produced, mainly from air pollution. World installed capacity doubled from 2000 to 2023 and increased 2% in 2023.
A coal-fired power station is a type of fossil fuel power station. The coal is usually pulverized and then burned in a pulverized coal-fired boiler. The furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then used to spin turbines that turn generators. Thus chemical energy stored in coal is converted successively into thermal energy, mechanical energy and, finally, electrical energy.
Gigawatts in the context of Grand Renaissance Dam
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD or TaIHiGe; Amharic: ታላቁ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዳሴ ግድብ, romanized: Tālāqu ye-Ītyōppyā Hidāsē Gidib, Tigrinya: ግድብ ሕዳሰ ኢትዮጵያ, Somali: Biyo Xidheenka Wayn ee Itoobiya), formerly known as the Millennium Dam and sometimes referred to as the Hidase Dam (Amharic: ሕዳሴ ግድብ, romanized: Hidāsē Gidib, Oromo: Hidha Hidāsē), is a gravity dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia. The dam is in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, close to the border with Sudan.
Constructed between 2011 and 2023, the dam's primary purpose is electricity production to relieve Ethiopia's acute energy shortage and to export electricity to neighbouring countries. With an installed capacity of 5.15 gigawatts, the dam is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and among the 20 largest in the world.