What are electricity pylons used for?

Pylons are there to carry electric wires which send large amounts of electrical energy across the country from where it is generated to where it is used.

Pylons usually carry electricity at many thousands of volts because this is the efficient way to transmit it. Typical voltages on pylons are 100,000 volts up to a limit of about a million volts.

The wires carried on pylons are usually made of stranded aluminium with a steel core, with overall diameters up to about one inch.

A line of pylons carrying six wires making up two 3-phase circuits and operating at 132,000 volts can carry a power of about 200 megawatts, enough for a town of 200,000 people.