Power source

A power source is a source of power. Most commonly the type of power referred to is:

• Power (physics), the rate of doing work; equivalent to an amount of energy consumed per unit time
  • Electric power, the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit; usually produced by electric generators or batteries

Power source may correspondingly refer to:

• A source of primary energy, an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any conversion or transformation process
• Energy carrier, or secondary energy, a substance or phenomenon that contains energy that can be later converted to other forms such as mechanical work or heat or to operate chemical or physical processes
  • Fuel, a material that stores potential energy in forms that can be practicably released and used for work
  • See Energy development for an overview of primary and secondary energy or power sources

or, often more specifically to an electric power source:

• The electric power industry
• A source of electrical energy
  • Electric power system, a network of electrical components used to supply, transmit and use electric power
    • Electricity generation, the process of generating electric power from other sources of primary energy
    • Power station, an industrial facility for the generation of electric power
    • Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy for use in an external circuit
    • Electric power transmission
    • Electric power distribution
    • Mains electricity or household power, the general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply
    • AC power plugs and sockets, devices that allow electrically operated equipment to be connected to the primary alternating current (AC) power supply in a building
  • Battery (electricity), a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy

Some conversion devices are sometimes called a "power source":

• Engine, a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion
• Power supply, an electrical device that supplies electric energy to an electrical load, by converting one form of electrical energy to another

As a proper name

PowerSource may also refer to:

• PowerSource (phone brand), mobile phone that can make use of both Sprint-Nextel cellular networks
• PowerSource (musical group), a Christian music group of the 1980s
• PowerSource, a weekly print section, and a companion website of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, highlighting the Pittsburgh region’s diverse energy industry

See also

• Power (disambiguation)
• Prime mover (disambiguation)
• Source (disambiguation)
• Current source
• Voltage source