Generators convert energy into electricity.
One thing goes in and another comes out. What comes out can be made in one place and used somewhere else, once it is produced you can store it and use it days, weeks, months, or even years later.
How do we unpick this metaphor? The generator only makes one type of thing, it is sequential again but the thing it generates gives power to numerous other more chaotic things.
The generator is also used when something else is broken.