[thackney]

I remember back in the seventies reading how transmission of electricity resulted in losses of 50%

Your information was not correct. Nobody who has to pay for power or generation builds a transmission line with 50% losses. See links in post above.

[exit82]

Thank you for the info. It appears to be in the 7% range of loss during transmission, with much more occurring at the plant.

The article I read in the 70s was a Popular Science article, I believe, and they used a 50% loss for transmission, but they might have included the losses during the generation as well.