66% of Primary Energy is Lost

So how much of the primary energy that goes into creating electricity actual provides useful work to us as consumers? According to Energy Information Administration (EIA), 66% of the primary energy used to create electricity is wasted by the time the electricity arrives at the customer meter.

• Waste heat occurring due to inefficiencies in the process of converting primary energy to electricity.

• Electricity used internally by the power plant during operations. This makes up about 5% of overall losses.