National power

National power is defined as the sum of all resources available to a nation in the pursuit of national objectives.

Elements of national power

National power stems from various elements, also called instruments or attributes; these may be put into two groups based on their applicability and origin - "national" and "social".

Geography

Important facets of geography such as location (geography), climate, topography, and size play major roles in the ability of a nation to gain national power. Location has an important bearing on foreign policy of a nation. The relation between foreign policy and geographic location gave rise to the discipline of geopolitics.

The presence of a water obstacle provided protection to nation states such as Great Britain, Japan, and the USA and allowed Japan to follow isolationist policies. The presence of large accessible seaboards also permitted these nations to build strong navies and expand their territories peacefully or by conquest. In contrast, Poland, with no obstacle for its powerful neighbours, even lost its independence as a nation, being partitioned among the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and Austria from 1795 onwards till it regained independence in 1918.

National Power

National Power was formerly an energy company based in the United Kingdom.

History

National Power was formed following the privatisation of the UK electricity market in 1990. In England and Wales the Central Electricity Generating Board, which was responsible for the generation and transmission of electricity, was split into four companies. Its generation (or upstream) activities were transferred to three generating companies - 'PowerGen', 'National Power', and 'Nuclear Electric' (later 'British Energy', eventually 'EDF Energy'); and its transmission (or downstream) activities to - the 'National Grid Company'.

National Power was the largest of these new companies having around 52 percent of the generating market. It later diversified into the supply market in November 1998 by purchasing the supply business of the regional electricity company Midlands Electricity and created the Npower supply brand.

On 2 October 2000 following investor pressure the company demerged into two separate companies Innogy, which was responsible for the UK based operations, and International Power, which took over the international operations. Innogy is now known as 'RWE npower' owned by the German utility company RWE; and International Power is fully owned by the French company GDF Suez.

Electrical grid

An electrical grid is an interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power, high-voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to demand centers, and distribution lines that connect individual customers.

Power stations may be located near a fuel source, at a dam site, or to take advantage of renewable energy sources, and are often located away from heavily populated areas. They are usually quite large to take advantage of the economies of scale. The electric power which is generated is stepped up to a higher voltage at which it connects to the electric power transmission network.

The bulk power transmission network will move the power long distances, sometimes across international boundaries, until it reaches its wholesale customer (usually the company that owns the local electric power distribution network).

On arrival at a substation, the power will be stepped down from a transmission level voltage to a distribution level voltage. As it exits the substation, it enters the distribution wiring. Finally, upon arrival at the service location, the power is stepped down again from the distribution voltage to the required service voltage(s).

Power Grid

Power Grid is the English-language edition of the multiplayer German-style board game Funkenschlag (in its second incarnation) designed by Friedemann Friese. Power Grid is published by Rio Grande Games.

In the game, each player represents a company that owns power plants and tries to supply electricity to cities. Over the course of the game, the players will bid on power plants and buy resources to produce electricity to provide power to the growing number of cities in their expanding network.

Game play

The game comes with a double-sided board with a map of the United States of America on one side and Germany on the other. Each map consists of six regions featuring cities with connections of varying costs between them. The number of regions used is based on the number of players. Map design itself is a key feature in the strategy of game play as some areas of the map feature generally higher connection costs compared to other areas of the map.

The game is played in rounds, with each round consisting of 5 phases: