Question

how does the total amount of electrical energy coming from a power plant compare to the total amount of energy in the fuel that was burned to create that electricity?
it is much greater because you can always get more energy out of a system than goes into it.
it is less because you can never get more energy out of a system than the amount that goes into it.
it is exactly the same.

Explanation:

According to the law of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. In a power - plant, when fuel is burned, some energy is lost as heat (due to inefficiencies in the conversion process, like friction in machinery, heat dissipation in the boiler, etc.). So the electrical energy output is less than the energy in the fuel input.

Answer:

It is less because you can NEVER get MORE energy out of a system than the amount that goes into it.