AC is used for transmission because transformers can step it up to high voltage for long distance, and down to low voltage for local distribution and use. The output of power stations comes from a rotary turbine, which by its nature is AC and therefore requires no power electronics to convert to DC
Also, it is much easier to change the voltage of AC electricity for transmission and distribution and the cost of plant associated with AC transmission (circuit breakers, transformers etc) is much lower than the equivalent of DC transmission. AC transmission provides a number of technical advantages. When a fault in the network occurs, large fault current flows. In an AC system, this becomes much easier to interrupt, as the sine wave current will naturally tend to zero at some point making the current easier to interrupt