Idaho Power produces 80 percent of its power at 17 hydroelectric plants along the Snake River and its tributaries, three coal-fired plants in Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming and a natural gas-fired plant near Mountain Home. From those power plants, the electricity, like high-pressure water in a hose, is sent at high voltage along transmission lines.

The high-voltage electricity generated at these plants is sent to substations that transform, or step-down, the voltage for local distribution.

Lower-voltage distribution lines carry power to neighborhoods and businesses, where the electricity is finally stepped-down to the 120-240 volts used in a home.

Since electricity travels at the speed of light -- 186,000 miles per second -- the generation- transmission-distribution process takes only a fraction of a second. An Idaho Power customer in Pocatello can operate a vacuum cleaner on electricity produced less than a second earlier hundreds of miles away in Hells Canyon!

Learn more about electricity.