Electric Power Industry

The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electric power to the general public and industry, spanning the entire chain from producing electricity to delivering it to end users, a commercial sector that traces to 1882 when commercial electric lighting distribution began. Global electricity generation reached 30.85 petawatt-hours in 2024, with coal supplying 34.4 percent, natural gas 22.1 percent, and hydropower 14.4 percent, alongside wind at 8.12 percent and solar at 6.92 percent, and the industry encompasses every generation method, whether fossil fuel, nuclear, hydro, or renewable, along with the transmission, distribution, and retail operations that carry power to customers. Despite this scale, about 840 million people, most of them in Africa, still lacked access to the electrical grid as of 2017. The industry is broader than any single generation source, renewable power included, since it covers the full chain of production and delivery rather than one technology alone.