Advantages and Disadvantages of AC over DC

Alternating current offers several practical advantages over direct current: it is significantly CHEAPER to generate than DC (large-scale AC generators/alternators are simpler and more efficient to build and run than equivalent DC dynamos); when supplied at higher voltages, AC suffers much SMALLER transmission losses than DC would over the same distance (exactly the advantage worked out quantitatively in section 4.6.3, made possible only because AC voltage can be stepped up and down efficiently with transformers); and AC can be readily CONVERTED into DC whenever DC is actually needed, using rectifier circuits. …