If you work for a larger electricity user, a manufacturing facility for instance, you may hear terms such as generation, transmission and distribution and some confusion is natural. But the definitions are simple.

Generation, as the name implies, is the actual power plant and its associated facilities.

Transmission refers to the long-distance delivery of electricity on huge towers at very high voltages, sometimes over 130,000 Volts. There are some very big customers that tap directly into the transmission system voltages but the great majority of us do not.

Distribution refers to the local distribution of electricity at lower voltages that are stepped down from the transmission lines at a substation. The biggest customers, called sub-transmission customers, might still be connected at 69,000 Volts. Those voltages are again stepped down to between 4,000 and 13, 000 Volts for primary customers, the bulk of large facilities, malls and factories.

Finally, those voltages are again stepped down to 120 or 240 Volts for secondary customers, homes and small apartments.

For more information, see the following article: https://callmepower.com/faq/energy-markets/difference-between-transmission-distribution