A couple of clarifications: The generator shown at 14:06 is indeed one of the generators (26kV), but the device shown at 15:43 is the exciter for the generator. The generator (alternator) is contained within the massive round portion of the orange assembly shown at 14:06. Also, I gloss over the process of burning and cleaning the coal. The coal is pulverized into dust to be ignited, and the actual "cleaning" is done as part of the process of burning it.
What you showed was only the slip ring assembly. The exciter is on one side, the main alternator is on the other. This conducts the 4000A of DC current into the rotor.
@@danbam465 , written like a true nincompoop. Fossil fuel power deserves criticism and eventual extinction, but going after it with incredibly uninformed cheap shots is inexcusable.
The "cleaning" is done post-combustion. Indeed, at least half the plant as you have shown it is dedicated to cleaning the exhaust gasses so that they are (reasonably) safe to send into the atmosphere. Virtually all of the white cloud seen coming out of the stack (chimney) is simply steam, and this is because of all the massive electrostatic precipitators, baghouses (filters) and chemical scrubber that are in the exhaust path between the furnace below the boiler and the stack. But no process is 100% effective, so there is always a tiny amount of combustion byproduct that gets through. The portal where you show the bright light in the "boiler" is not in the boiler, it is in the furnace (true, depending on the design, these can be considered to be essentially the same thing...not sure about the design at this particular plant). Others have pointed out that the thing you identify as the "generator" is actually just a tiny but of auxiliary equipment near the generator. The cooling 'tower' (not really a tower at this particular installation) is primarily there to cool the closed loop water/steam/water system so that it can be used again. Many fossil plants don't use cooling towers because instead they use water from a nearby lake, reservoir, or river as a source of cool water, and then through a heat exchanger to cool the actual active water loop. I write this sitting at a desk at another coal fired power plant, which will remain nameless. My last plant visit before retirement!
Wow this is incredible. Really makes you appreciate the insane amount of time and effort that is spent keeping the lights on. Also, I have nothing against renewable energy, but I wish some of the people who have the attitude that "fossil fuel power is obsolete and needs to go away" could see this video to understand the critical role plants like this all across the world play in providing the power that we all depend on. Great video 👍
I wish they had an inkling about what producing the power for just a small town entails, sadly they couldn't fathom the numbers when it comes to the daily usage of a whole state. I cite the average consumption and what it takes to provide that power and I'm called insane or I'm inflating the numbers. People that are adamantly against fossil fuels don't want to hear real data because their solutions can't satisfy demand and would not be financially feasible to do overnight as they want to believe it can be done.
What kind of argument is that? Renewables are bad because coal is being used now and because someones are now dependent of coal? Remember that coal does not last forever. One day, will be the day when easily accessible coal is used. What are you going to do then? I like fossilfs too and the systems are impressive. But renewables make a lot of sense, it just needs to be worked on to make them reliable, cheaper, etc. One of the first things I did when watching this video, was calculating what area of solar panels you would need to replace this. Well, with 20% panel efficiency at minimum it is 9,5 km^2. But because solar panels are not constant power sources and there is no good energy storages, in practice it is much more. But in the western USA, there is area for sure. Actually it is surprisingly small area, have to check did I make an error somewhere in my maths.
@@jimmartin7881 Sun shines at approx 1 kW power per square meter, of which you can recover maybe 20% with a good solar panel. Wind is another way to recover the energy of sun. Problem with these is that, they are not constant power sources. So for the system to work well, would either need massive amount of over capacity, or massive energy storage systems. Currently synthetic gas is maybe one of the few energy storage systems (aside water, where possible), that in theory quite well might have the storage capacity. But for sure, these projects take some time to complete.
I have been a paper mil E and I Tech for 30 years. I enjoyed boiler controls more than other process areas. Nice tour. Solar,wind and fairy dust can’t do what this plant can do 24/7!
You really Nailed it to the WALL on this one! and Thanks for not "dumbing down" and wasting Both our times on Tutorials with fancy graphics! there are many other places to gain the prerequisite knowledge and background to get to Your level of instruction (I'd like to think I have) Thank you for your work!
The boiler is suspended to allow for expansion of the boiler in a downward direction (3:42). It is a common practice. Steal expands at a rate of 7.3x10^-6 ft per degree, with this increase in size you have to account for that (even though it is not that much ). If it was hard bolted and not allowed to expand it would crack.
Thank you for stating the cooling toward are only emitting steam, its a common misunderstanding that drives me nuts when people assume it is smoke or exhaust from the plant.
@@TomGorman59 Hell, most of everything that comes out of a stack is steam these days. Thanks to Obama's EPA regulations. But, all of that ash is caught and put into sealed landfills
Very interesting. Adds a whole new perspective to the amount of effort, engineering and care that goes into designing the systems that help keep our lights on. It’s scale is absolutely mind blowing.
Electricity has always intrigued me even though I really don't know anything about it. I really enjoy learning about the equipment needed for production as I am a mechanic by trade. I have major respect for the folks who maintenance the power plant and the transmission lines and equipment.
The cleaning and filtering is after burning the coal. Thanks for sharing, those beast are truly awesome. I do remember my professor criticizing that putting some panels on a roof is not nearly as complicated as these plants and we better don't forget that if we don't want to go backwards.
Being complicate is never a target in technology. Complicate only means one couldn't figure out a simple way to do something. Complicate technology is less reliable, more expensive to develop, more expensive to maintain, more expensive to use. Sure we people who are interested of technology often like complicate things, but the actual value of complicate technology is always lower if there is simpler alternative that can do the same thing. Complicate things are done because of must, not because it is ideal. About panels; well the complicate part with panels isn't putting them on the roof. They may look simple to a person who doesn't understand them, but massive amount of engineering and brightest minds on the planet have been working on them to make them work. And the problem isn't even fully solved yet as the grid part of renewables is largely unsettled still. How to make the production reliable? Probably large scale energy storage systems, smarter grids, long range transmission lines, etc. will be needed. Even burning facilities may have a place in the long run, it just may be something else than fossils what they burn one day, and as a backup power they will have important role for a long time.
@@wopmf4345FxFDxdGaa20 sure, the kiss principle is a thing. The value lies not in the complicatedness of these machines. The point is that we should be careful not to dismiss these machines as old technology and forget about them. There's a huge amount of knowledge in there and we depend on these right now.
Oh my gosh RYAN you are a LIFESAVER this really helped spark my electrician job and my boss appreciates my worn ethic. This video was a very helpful experience for me and helped me learn more about coal plants. Thanks so much and continue with the training videos.
Very cool video. Someone probably already pointed it out but at 10:30 when he is explaining "cleaning" the coal using scrubbers, keep in mind that it is the exhaust gases from the boiler that are "scrubbed", using chemical processes and electrostatic precipitatiors. When I worked at our local municipal power plant, (a mere tea kettle compared to this monster) the coal came right from the yard, to the day hoppers, fed to pulverizers and blown to the furnace. Cleaning comes after burning.
I was able to tour the IPP facility in the early 2000's. Very cool and everyone there was extremely pleasant and went out of their way to show us the plant. I'd expect with everything that's gone on in the last 15+ years they aren't allowing visits like that anymore. Glad I got a chance when I did - still have the pictures and was shocked we were allowed to take any even back then.
Wow....Thank you very much. It is no doubt that most of us in the electrical fields will not have the opportunity to gaze upon all that awesomeness. VERY COOL.
When I was in the last year of my apprenticeship our instructor was just starting to work on the underground for this power plant it was just an empty field. I’ve worked on some power plants in Wyoming and the largest one had a 500 MW generator but nothing as large as the generators in this plant I’ve been by it many times I’ve always wondered what it looked like inside so thanks for the video it was fun to see the inside of this gigantic power plant. I am now retired so it brought up just how long ago this thing was built. Thanks again for a great video.
7:25 thats the cleanest coal tunnel ive seen in a while 10:17 the “scrubber” where the majority of pollutants are removed is after it is burned. its after the gasses leave the boiler before they go out the chimney.
27:10 I'm glad you mention that. A lot of people in government especially don't take quite seriously the fact that power is a life-critical requirement, and people have died (and continue to die) as a result.
Great video. I once w absolutely nothing about power plants and their opererations. However, this video gave me the basic idea of how one of these fascinating plants run and operate. Great video, I enjoyed my it immensely. Thank you
Wow, this is great. I was part of the start up of this plant. (I've got the belt buckle.) I've walked the entire site from the cooling towers to the fly ash piles to the feed line for the coal. Glad to see it's still operating.
At 15:30, it's not the really the "generator" itself, it's the exciter of the generator. DC voltage (585V/5363A max) is fed into these brushes and goes into the windings of the rotor, who creates the magnetic field.
The power from the exciter goes thru the AVR (regulator) first which controls the amount of power the generator windings pick up from the generator rotor. On startup the AVR is controlled by us control room operators. Once we turn the generator control over to the system operators they control the output of the plants in the system according to system demand and the traders buy and sell power from different systems according market demands. Even though most operating systems in the plant are automatic, we make critical adjustments throughout the plant as system load increases or decreases. Sometimes we have to override automatic systems when things get unstable, and it can get downright scary.. for hours. It's not uncommon to get home physically exhausted from our 12 hour shifts in the control room.
Doing brushgear (replacing all the worn out brushes & cutting them in with sandpaper) was one ofvthe dirtiest jobs I ever did, Carbon dust everywhere, Mike Rowe would be jealous!
Fascinating video! This video was just about as long as a half-hour sitcom, but one thousand times more-satisfying! The real world is much-more-interesting than the World of Fiction! Thanks to you and the people who run facilities like this!
Well, didn't expect to watch this for more than a minute but... Those 32 minutes went by really fast! This was fascinating! Really excellent presentation
I help build two of these things, as a pipe fitter, and as you said the video can't do it any justice. There was 24" pipe that was bringing steam from the boiler to the turbine and it was 3.5" thick! And 9% chrome. They planned 100 man hours to weld each one of the joints. It was really cool to work on.
I was surprised that turbine had such a high inlet pressure (2400 psi). Steam pressure on a convention diesel fired aircraft carrier topped out at 1200 psi and I figured civilian plants would run lower.
This video reminds me a bit of when I was able to tour the JH Campbell facility here in Michigan about 25 years ago on a field trip from one of my college classes. Not sure on their coal consumption but I know they take a train load almost every day. They used to flip the cars upside down to empty them but now utilize bottom dump hoppers.
Hi, great video. The high voltage rating of the GE Pittsfield built coreform GSU (generator step up) transformer is actually 345kv (345,000 volts) nominal. Per the HV denergize tap changer ratings of the one screenshot you showed of the transformer nameplate it shows tap position number 4 at 345000 volts
Great video. I'm an operator in a coal station in the uk. Very similar mix of old and new. I think the environment agency is stricter here. We have to have flue gas desulpherisation and selective catalytic reduction retro fitted onto our units. My station is 4 x 500mw units but run at 50hz 3000rpm. Our big motors are 11kv. But it was built in the 50s.
I appreciate what you do. I've worked at 2 coal fired power plants and now a gas/oil one and have seen the same configurations on the east coast. The main reason why boilers are hung from the top though are not due to seismic activity but because metal grows when heated. On a typical 200mw or greater boiler, that mass of a boiler will expand over a foot from cold to online. That's why all the connections going from the basement to the top are not rigidly connected to the support structure. There will be flex connections on piping areas that allow for that on areas that have to be close. Look at the burner front. Any instrumentation that goes from catwalk to boiler will probably have a steel braided flex lines with slack that connects to it. If not... things will snap. I like your vid and keep them up. I just had to clarify. It's people like you that teach us that are new to the industry so PLEASE keep it up.
What kind of efficiency does this have? My wild guess is that the thermal power is probably twice the electrical power, so in around 4MW? I'm wondering why they don't use waste heat from the plant to heat up the railway cars? That heating solution looks like an afterthought. Do they use any of the waste heat for district heating?
That tunnel at 8:15 had to have been just washed down... or the coal is so wet or frozen that it's not putting out any dust. (I doubt that) Our stuff in the South gets dirty fast
This is interesting for me as I worked my way through college spending five summers painting piping inside a 250 MW coal plant along the Mississippi river. Yes, I literally climbed through that entire plant painting the miles of pipes. I recall one length of pipe I could not reach, no access from any direction .. we constructed a ten foot long paint brush handle to a three inch paint brush and I primed and painted that pipe on all sides .. Cheers .....
Cooling towers don't produce steam they reject heat and condense the hot air .Stem is produce when adding heat . Your excellent and informative video pretension is bring back old memories .
Very cool!! I worked on coal and gas fired boilers for years. I found them fascinating and terrifying. The flue gas monitoring systems were really cool. I wrote an operating procedure for one industrial cleaning company for operating in explosive dust environments after a coal dust explosion killed a couple of workers..... what really scared me though is high pressure steam. It can reach out and kill you without you even knowing it’s there.
Very informative video. Please keep em coming. I worked for GE in Australia for 9 years and it is good to see the equipment being used. Same with the SEL relays on the doors. I mostly did gas plants in Australia and Asia but did get to do a few coal ones too.
@ 13:59 We don't light off a boiler with the coal and heat up the boiler an d then add water. Good what to get an explosion. Fill the boiler with water to the proper level, then you light off the boiler.
I've been in "The Control Room(tm)" -- not when the plant was active, and long before 9/11. One could spend hours showing and explaining a power plant. I've had the day long tour of Cliffside (NC) back when it was 5 turbines. It was recommissioned with a massive single turbine long ago. You didn't mention it, but my guide was very keen on explaining why the turbine hall is so big... so they have space to dismantle the turbine for servicing. They don't filter CO2 out of the coal, that comes _after_ it's burned. The crushed coal (dust) is filtered to remove sulfur and various heavy metals. If they have the proper scrubbers on their smoke stack most of what's coming out is steam. Ash is collected, and much of the CO2 is ("should be") sequestered.
Pittsfield Massachusetts....weird to hear. I played baseball across from the abandoned GE plant. Apparently their waste pond glows at night. They had to plastic line it when I was about 14 to prevent ground seepage
I had a randomly decided to look up what a coal fired power plant boiler looks like - was somewhat disappointed in that regard, but, but... there was so much else I didn't know I needed to know. 👍
Glad you enjoyed it! As I'm sure you figured out, I'm an electrical guy, not a boiler guy. I will say that seeing a 19 story boiler is a pretty amazing experience though!
Isophase bus ducts are typically just carbon steel. The separation distance between the conductor and the duct is enough to reduce losses to a negligible amount. Nice plant. I have been at quite a few and always like seeing them.
What's interesting is bassically the boiler the coal is ground to a fine dust and is bassically a controlled explosion as well built an airport with structural bolts that same size there a pain to work with
At 14:44 - The 820000 kW is the output power / shaft power of the 20 stage turbine, the generator output is 991000kVA at 26000kV and 22006 Amps at the busbar. And those generator HV busbars are alu-conductors in steel casings filled with an inert gas, problably SulfurHexafluoride - SF6 or Co2, fed through the generator breaker, that odd-shaped box just before the elbow going through the flooring.
Otherwise great vid... Don't quite know where it's coming from, but somehow tech.-vids or "walk-arounds" sticks me to the couch far more than any sport - except maybe when they're showing STIHL timbersports..;)
13:39 spring hanger cans above the penthouse, holding up the pressure parts, headers inside the penthouse. This allows for thermal expansion when the boiler heats up
Im still so sad that current world situation cancelled our class trip to Natural gas burning powerplant :/ Would have been so cool to see a "Huge jet engine" spinning turbine.
By pure chance I'm reading about the Sayano-Shushenskaya (Atomic Accidents, James Mahaffey) disaster right now and your video pops up in my suggestions feed. Very timely and very interesting. :O
Okay. So you got things a little earlier than when they happen.. Around 10:00... What they do before its burned is run it through magnetic separators to pull any junk or trash out.. (like bolts or broken parts of the train, or any trash that came from where the coal was gathered) Then, it goes into these GIANT hoppers via a junction tower. It is fed out of the hoppers into pulverizers that crush that coal into smaller than baby powder particles, and is fed into the boiler. The scrubbers dont come into play until after the coal is burnt. After it is combusted, the ash and gases are sent into the scrubber system and precipitators, then out of the stack. Some plants use both scrubber and precips, some use either.. but Im pretty sure all have to use a scrubber these days
So Ryan, How many windmills would it take to replace this Power Plant? How large is the overall site in acres? What and how is the 500KVA DC line used?
18:43 i remember when Fort Peck, Montana's 185.25 MW dam and powerhouse needed a new transformer..... they used this HUGE semi with like 100 tires (idk if it was 100....but it was more than 18 wheels!!) . even with all the tires spreading the ground pressure out..... it still put deep groves in the roads every soft spot in the road bed was found that day..... and left behind a nice "hole" when it found one . the Corps of Engineers had to pay MT-DOT to repair the roads . . . as far as lifting it.... i think they used hydraulics no way a cable and gears.... like a normal crane has.... would be able to lift it . however, hydraulics can lift/pull a CRAP TON of weight, even with a tiny hand pump...... its just going to take 6 hours to lift 1 inch lol but im sure they used electric pumps to make the operation a BIT quicker! . . . fort peck dam is 4 miles long..... worlds largest hydraulically earth filled dam the lake has more shoreline than the coast of cali....1700 miles.... and ~240 feet deep . "hydraulically earth filled" just means they used dredges to mix the dirt from the river....with water then pumped the "slurry" threw pipes to the dam.... let it run out of the pipe..... and the water run off leaving behind just the dirt . and they slowly built up a MASSIVE dam..... basically making "mud pies" like we did as kids just on an industrial scale . a lot of out-of-town people think its just a big hill.....as its just covered in grass....not steel or concrete like people expect a dam to be we also tell these people to watch out for the "snow snakes" they are white, to blend in with the snow..... and 3x more poisonous than a diamond-back rattlesnake . always funny to see them starring at their feet while walking threw 2 foot of snow HAHAH!
The reason for the heaters in the thawing shed being 480V instead of a higher operating potential has to do with the dielectric strength of the heating element insulation. Being 480V means that the peak potential to ground is only 392V (peak of 277V RMS; I know it is on a resistively grounded system but each phase is 277V to ground in normal operation). Higher potential elements would require much thicker insulation, which means that the nichrome or kanthal (probably the latter given that kanthal has a higher maximum temperature and the element casings are already running cherry red) wire in the elements would run hotter and thus be at more risk of melting. Then there is the fact that 480V elements are a COTS item. And on top of the cost of custom elements, any cost savings from smaller wire would be eaten up by the 5.5MVA+ of conversion transformers as opposed to just tapping the extant 480V buss.
@@b43xoit Electric heaters are used for radiant heat. Using steam would require building an insulated thaw house and soaking cars in it for extended periods of time. IR gets the cars hotter faster.
Actually, yes. They take great care to keep it clean. In fact, they hose everything down so often that they have to worry about cleaning liquids more than they have to worry about all the coal!
@@RyanJacksonElectrical I hear stories from guys who have been at my plant from the beginning and it used to get firehosed every night. Reduction in manpower now prevents this.
Arent there a couple system that alos use optical sensors right inside a rack and in case of any flash instantly trigger a huge 3-phase shorting mekanism to blow up the relay "controlled" and protect the rack thats been worked on?
Thanks for the great video. I think the 500 kV applies only to the DC link to southern California. The switchyard may be less. The AC to the DC rectifier would need 0.707 times 500 kV, right? One other point: the fossil fueled power plants will have to be replaced with renewable energy -- wind or solar. The timeframe is about 2035, but there may be efforts to speed that up to much sooner.
Great video, thanks. Couple of things: transformers are normally drained to move them and are shifted on rails similar to railway track (bullhead). Other thing, are the generator unit transformers used also for starting with reverse power flow?
I think they just don't want you in the control room. NERC Cyber Security Standards - Controlled Access Area just means that you have to be escorted into that area by an authorized person at all times and be logged. While they do treat the coal before being transported to the silos, most pollutants are removed by a scrubber on the back end of a unit. The main reason the boiler is suspended from the ceiling is to allow for the boiler to grow as it is heated. The bottom of the boiler sits in what's called a neck seal. This keeps a water seal between the bottom of the boiler and the pantleg /SFC as the boiler grows or shrinks. Around 15:35 you are looking into the "dog house" or the exciter room. This is not the generator. I'm going to assume the control room at 23:57 is for the cooling towers based on the layout. Just a few notes on your video.
5:30 Why is it you can't unload frozen train? Conveyor lubrication freezing? Coal chunks get glued together by ice while train is in transit? Too much water gets condensed on coal after conveyor inside plant?
ilitvinov multitude of reasons. Not being able to get all the coal out of the cars (getting the fuel you paid for, every piece matters), belts trying to transport too much weight (scales and speed switches monitor tonage rates and belt movement in pulses and abnormal readings or speed can trip the belts), blocked diversion gates, plugged chutes, damaged rollers, and that’s just some of the things that happen with the belts outside and inside the plant. Then it affects the feeders, pulverizers, and ultimately heat rate.
What is the Thermodynamic Efficiency of this Coal-fired Power Plant (Given you're burning 1.2X10^6 pounds of coal per hour, I estimate a Thermodynamic efficiency of 43%)? Does this plant burn bituminous coal or anthracite coal?
Do you know how much steam pressure this plant runs? I talked to an old welder a few months back, who helped to build the Allen S. King plant in Bayport, MN, who referred to it as a "supercritical" plant, and the pipes had to handle something like 3900psi of steam pressure.
Supercritical operates at 3600 Psi and 1000°F. The piping is rated for much higher as the primary safety are usually set to open around 4250psi if something would cause an excessive pressure spike.
a bit late but the nameplate on the turbine says 2400 psi, which i would assume isn’t even the high pressure turbine since it seems low but i could be wrong
When you speak of this security I feel I can’t even mention what I’ve been allowed to do haha. But I’ve been into an old hydroelectric facility, and man, these sorts of places are amazing. The amount of engineering and work gone into it, the heavy equipment and technology, even old technology, it’s all amazing. I know coal gets a bad rap, but man we can’t cut it out of our lives yet, and plants like this are at the front of the technology to keep it burning cleaner. It’s pretty amazing how clean you can get it by burning dust, it doesn’t leave much behind. Hope to see more nuclear, but until the anti coal activists stop fear mongering about it, we have to keep up the coal. Also the amount of electrical equipment is astronomical, and the fact it’s mostly worked on when live, the stuff that goes on is pretty amazing.
Ive seen power plant alternators cooled with hydrogen gas that’s pushed through the alternator core. Interesting to see one that has direct water cooling.
The cooling water pipes were labelled as being for stator cooling. Here in the UK in large alternators the stator is usually water cooled, and the rotor hydrogen cooled, I think I’ve got that the right way round. Our very last coal fired power station is closing next month. This video doesn’t show the vast amount of ancillary plant required to operate a large coal fired station; if it did it would probably run for hours. I have not visited any power station here where we - the public - were not taken into the main control room.
A couple of clarifications: The generator shown at 14:06 is indeed one of the generators (26kV), but the device shown at 15:43 is the exciter for the generator. The generator (alternator) is contained within the massive round portion of the orange assembly shown at 14:06. Also, I gloss over the process of burning and cleaning the coal. The coal is pulverized into dust to be ignited, and the actual "cleaning" is done as part of the process of burning it.
What you showed was only the slip ring assembly. The exciter is on one side, the main alternator is on the other. This conducts the 4000A of DC current into the rotor.
republican poison plants funded by the billionaires and big oil
@@danbam465 , written like a true nincompoop. Fossil fuel power deserves criticism and eventual extinction, but going after it with incredibly uninformed cheap shots is inexcusable.
The "cleaning" is done post-combustion. Indeed, at least half the plant as you have shown it is dedicated to cleaning the exhaust gasses so that they are (reasonably) safe to send into the atmosphere. Virtually all of the white cloud seen coming out of the stack (chimney) is simply steam, and this is because of all the massive electrostatic precipitators, baghouses (filters) and chemical scrubber that are in the exhaust path between the furnace below the boiler and the stack. But no process is 100% effective, so there is always a tiny amount of combustion byproduct that gets through.
The portal where you show the bright light in the "boiler" is not in the boiler, it is in the furnace (true, depending on the design, these can be considered to be essentially the same thing...not sure about the design at this particular plant).
Others have pointed out that the thing you identify as the "generator" is actually just a tiny but of auxiliary equipment near the generator.
The cooling 'tower' (not really a tower at this particular installation) is primarily there to cool the closed loop water/steam/water system so that it can be used again. Many fossil plants don't use cooling towers because instead they use water from a nearby lake, reservoir, or river as a source of cool water, and then through a heat exchanger to cool the actual active water loop.
I write this sitting at a desk at another coal fired power plant, which will remain nameless. My last plant visit before retirement!
I was about to say this same thing! Fascinating video though!
Wow this is incredible. Really makes you appreciate the insane amount of time and effort that is spent keeping the lights on. Also, I have nothing against renewable energy, but I wish some of the people who have the attitude that "fossil fuel power is obsolete and needs to go away" could see this video to understand the critical role plants like this all across the world play in providing the power that we all depend on. Great video 👍
I wish they had an inkling about what producing the power for just a small town entails, sadly they couldn't fathom the numbers when it comes to the daily usage of a whole state. I cite the average consumption and what it takes to provide that power and I'm called insane or I'm inflating the numbers. People that are adamantly against fossil fuels don't want to hear real data because their solutions can't satisfy demand and would not be financially feasible to do overnight as they want to believe it can be done.
Nuclear all the way
Nuclear could do the job just fine, and kill a lot less people too
What kind of argument is that? Renewables are bad because coal is being used now and because someones are now dependent of coal? Remember that coal does not last forever. One day, will be the day when easily accessible coal is used. What are you going to do then? I like fossilfs too and the systems are impressive. But renewables make a lot of sense, it just needs to be worked on to make them reliable, cheaper, etc. One of the first things I did when watching this video, was calculating what area of solar panels you would need to replace this. Well, with 20% panel efficiency at minimum it is 9,5 km^2. But because solar panels are not constant power sources and there is no good energy storages, in practice it is much more. But in the western USA, there is area for sure. Actually it is surprisingly small area, have to check did I make an error somewhere in my maths.
@@jimmartin7881 Sun shines at approx 1 kW power per square meter, of which you can recover maybe 20% with a good solar panel. Wind is another way to recover the energy of sun. Problem with these is that, they are not constant power sources. So for the system to work well, would either need massive amount of over capacity, or massive energy storage systems. Currently synthetic gas is maybe one of the few energy storage systems (aside water, where possible), that in theory quite well might have the storage capacity. But for sure, these projects take some time to complete.
I've been working in power plants but never have got such a great run through every single system in a single place. Great content, thank you.
That was the best 32 minute timer watched for a long time
I actually never watch these kinds of videos but the time really did fly fast here.
🐯🐸
I have been a paper mil E and I Tech for 30 years. I enjoyed boiler controls more than other process areas. Nice tour. Solar,wind and fairy dust can’t do what this plant can do 24/7!
You really Nailed it to the WALL on this one! and Thanks for not "dumbing down" and wasting Both our times on Tutorials with fancy graphics! there are many other places to gain the prerequisite knowledge and background to get to Your level of instruction (I'd like to think I have) Thank you for your work!
The boiler is suspended to allow for expansion of the boiler in a downward direction (3:42). It is a common practice. Steal expands at a rate of 7.3x10^-6 ft per degree, with this increase in size you have to account for that (even though it is not that much ). If it was hard bolted and not allowed to expand it would crack.
Thank you for stating the cooling toward are only emitting steam, its a common misunderstanding that drives me nuts when people assume it is smoke or exhaust from the plant.
@@TomGorman59 Hell, most of everything that comes out of a stack is steam these days. Thanks to Obama's EPA regulations.
But, all of that ash is caught and put into sealed landfills
@@jimlthor Fly ash and bottom ash was used in road construction once upon a time..
I've seen things like push carts and maintenance equipment get smashed from being placed under the boilers when they were cold!
@@rabie4x4 oh, we still sell some of the bottom ash and a lot of fly ash.
Just the ash that used to come out of the stack is captured by scrubbers now
I am not in this industry or even in any adjacent industry but I found this extremely interesting! Great video.
Wow, what a compliment. Thanks so much!
Very interesting. Adds a whole new perspective to the amount of effort, engineering and care that goes into designing the systems that help keep our lights on. It’s scale is absolutely mind blowing.
Powerplants and boilers in general are so damn cool.
Boilers and burning techniques must have been one of my fav subjects to study.
Electricity has always intrigued me even though I really don't know anything about it. I really enjoy learning about the equipment needed for production as I am a mechanic by trade. I have major respect for the folks who maintenance the power plant and the transmission lines and equipment.
The cleaning and filtering is after burning the coal.
Thanks for sharing, those beast are truly awesome. I do remember my professor criticizing that putting some panels on a roof is not nearly as complicated as these plants and we better don't forget that if we don't want to go backwards.
Being complicate is never a target in technology. Complicate only means one couldn't figure out a simple way to do something. Complicate technology is less reliable, more expensive to develop, more expensive to maintain, more expensive to use. Sure we people who are interested of technology often like complicate things, but the actual value of complicate technology is always lower if there is simpler alternative that can do the same thing. Complicate things are done because of must, not because it is ideal. About panels; well the complicate part with panels isn't putting them on the roof. They may look simple to a person who doesn't understand them, but massive amount of engineering and brightest minds on the planet have been working on them to make them work. And the problem isn't even fully solved yet as the grid part of renewables is largely unsettled still. How to make the production reliable? Probably large scale energy storage systems, smarter grids, long range transmission lines, etc. will be needed. Even burning facilities may have a place in the long run, it just may be something else than fossils what they burn one day, and as a backup power they will have important role for a long time.
@@wopmf4345FxFDxdGaa20 sure, the kiss principle is a thing.
The value lies not in the complicatedness of these machines.
The point is that we should be careful not to dismiss these machines as old technology and forget about them. There's a huge amount of knowledge in there and we depend on these right now.
Oh my gosh RYAN you are a LIFESAVER this really helped spark my electrician job and my boss appreciates my worn ethic. This video was a very helpful experience for me and helped me learn more about coal plants. Thanks so much and continue with the training videos.
Very cool video. Someone probably already pointed it out but at 10:30 when he is explaining "cleaning" the coal using scrubbers, keep in mind that it is the exhaust gases from the boiler that are "scrubbed", using chemical processes and electrostatic precipitatiors. When I worked at our local municipal power plant, (a mere tea kettle compared to this monster) the coal came right from the yard, to the day hoppers, fed to pulverizers and blown to the furnace. Cleaning comes after burning.
I was able to tour the IPP facility in the early 2000's. Very cool and everyone there was extremely pleasant and went out of their way to show us the plant. I'd expect with everything that's gone on in the last 15+ years they aren't allowing visits like that anymore. Glad I got a chance when I did - still have the pictures and was shocked we were allowed to take any even back then.
Thank you for the tour. You did a great job of combining quality photos with solid explanations of the components.
Wow....Thank you very much. It is no doubt that most of us in the electrical fields will not have the opportunity to gaze upon all that awesomeness. VERY COOL.
Hey Ryan, I'm a 45 years in the trade Commercial Electrician. Thanks for your video. Lots of grat information for us retired sparky's.
When I was in the last year of my apprenticeship our instructor was just starting to work on the underground for this power plant it was just an empty field. I’ve worked on some power plants in Wyoming and the largest one had a 500 MW generator but nothing as large as the generators in this plant I’ve been by it many times I’ve always wondered what it looked like inside so thanks for the video it was fun to see the inside of this gigantic power plant. I am now retired so it brought up just how long ago this thing was built. Thanks again for a great video.
7:25 thats the cleanest coal tunnel ive seen in a while
10:17 the “scrubber” where the majority of pollutants are removed is after it is burned. its after the gasses leave the boiler before they go out the chimney.
This was a fascinating video on an obscure subject that is vital to everyday life. Thank you for making this video!
27:10 I'm glad you mention that. A lot of people in government especially don't take quite seriously the fact that power is a life-critical requirement, and people have died (and continue to die) as a result.
Great video. I once w absolutely nothing about power plants and their opererations. However, this video gave me the basic idea of how one of these fascinating plants run and operate. Great video, I enjoyed my it immensely. Thank you
Wow, this is great. I was part of the start up of this plant. (I've got the belt buckle.) I've walked the entire site from the cooling towers to the fly ash piles to the feed line for the coal. Glad to see it's still operating.
They're going to change over to natural gas over the next couple years.
At 15:30, it's not the really the "generator" itself, it's the exciter of the generator.
DC voltage (585V/5363A max) is fed into these brushes and goes into the windings of the rotor, who creates the magnetic field.
Agreed. I misspoke.
The power from the exciter goes thru the AVR (regulator) first which controls the amount of power the generator windings pick up from the generator rotor. On startup the AVR is controlled by us control room operators. Once we turn the generator control over to the system operators they control the output of the plants in the system according to system demand and the traders buy and sell power from different systems according market demands. Even though most operating systems in the plant are automatic, we make critical adjustments throughout the plant as system load increases or decreases. Sometimes we have to override automatic systems when things get unstable, and it can get downright scary.. for hours. It's not uncommon to get home physically exhausted from our 12 hour shifts in the control room.
Doing brushgear (replacing all the worn out brushes & cutting them in with sandpaper) was one ofvthe dirtiest jobs I ever did, Carbon dust everywhere, Mike Rowe would be jealous!
For the ge guys , alterrex
Exciter generates DC current to the rotor, not the windings.
Rotor magnetic field cuts stator windings to generate AC emf.
Pretty neat. Honestly some of these videos are better than an in person tour.
Fascinating video! This video was just about as long as a half-hour sitcom, but one thousand times more-satisfying! The real world is much-more-interesting than the World of Fiction! Thanks to you and the people who run facilities like this!
Well, didn't expect to watch this for more than a minute but... Those 32 minutes went by really fast! This was fascinating! Really excellent presentation
That was awesome, great Tour. Thanks Ryan, I had never seen a power plant in my life until now, greatttttt. Good video.
I help build two of these things, as a pipe fitter, and as you said the video can't do it any justice. There was 24" pipe that was bringing steam from the boiler to the turbine and it was 3.5" thick! And 9% chrome. They planned 100 man hours to weld each one of the joints. It was really cool to work on.
I was surprised that turbine had such a high inlet pressure (2400 psi). Steam pressure on a convention diesel fired aircraft carrier topped out at 1200 psi and I figured civilian plants would run lower.
Great video ...I work in a 4150 MW thermal power plant as an instrumentation maintenance engineer....it is a very informative video....cheers
This video reminds me a bit of when I was able to tour the JH Campbell facility here in Michigan about 25 years ago on a field trip from one of my college classes. Not sure on their coal consumption but I know they take a train load almost every day. They used to flip the cars upside down to empty them but now utilize bottom dump hoppers.
Hi, great video. The high voltage rating of the GE Pittsfield built coreform GSU (generator step up) transformer is actually 345kv (345,000 volts) nominal. Per the HV denergize tap changer ratings of the one screenshot you showed of the transformer nameplate it shows tap position number 4 at 345000 volts
I have to write a report on coal fueled power plants. This video helps me so much. Keep up the good work!
Glad you found it useful.
Great video. I'm an operator in a coal station in the uk. Very similar mix of old and new. I think the environment agency is stricter here. We have to have flue gas desulpherisation and selective catalytic reduction retro fitted onto our units. My station is 4 x 500mw units but run at 50hz 3000rpm. Our big motors are 11kv. But it was built in the 50s.
10:22 there is no CO2 cleaned from the coal. CO2 is created during combustion
Yeah, I think the cleaning may be to reduce the Sulphur content. CO2 would be a product of combustion.
I appreciate what you do. I've worked at 2 coal fired power plants and now a gas/oil one and have seen the same configurations on the east coast. The main reason why boilers are hung from the top though are not due to seismic activity but because metal grows when heated. On a typical 200mw or greater boiler, that mass of a boiler will expand over a foot from cold to online. That's why all the connections going from the basement to the top are not rigidly connected to the support structure. There will be flex connections on piping areas that allow for that on areas that have to be close. Look at the burner front. Any instrumentation that goes from catwalk to boiler will probably have a steel braided flex lines with slack that connects to it. If not... things will snap. I like your vid and keep them up. I just had to clarify. It's people like you that teach us that are new to the industry so PLEASE keep it up.
This is correct. I'm a performance engineer for GE Power. We are the OEM for half the coal fleet in the US.
I'm a big fan of American fueled power generation. It's reliable, inexpensive and doesn't turn off at night.
Fascinating video, thank you for posting.
What kind of efficiency does this have? My wild guess is that the thermal power is probably twice the electrical power, so in around 4MW? I'm wondering why they don't use waste heat from the plant to heat up the railway cars? That heating solution looks like an afterthought. Do they use any of the waste heat for district heating?
Very cool video, it would be great to see video of some of the processes and meet the technicians that keep this place running.
Fascinating to watch. Thank you!
That tunnel at 8:15 had to have been just washed down... or the coal is so wet or frozen that it's not putting out any dust. (I doubt that)
Our stuff in the South gets dirty fast
This is interesting for me as I worked my way through college spending five summers painting piping inside a 250 MW coal plant along the Mississippi river. Yes, I literally climbed through that entire plant painting the miles of pipes. I recall one length of pipe I could not reach, no access from any direction .. we constructed a ten foot long paint brush handle to a three inch paint brush and I primed and painted that pipe on all sides .. Cheers .....
Cooling towers don't produce steam they reject heat and condense the hot air .Stem is produce when adding heat . Your excellent and informative video pretension is bring back old memories .
Very cool!! I worked on coal and gas fired boilers for years. I found them fascinating and terrifying. The flue gas monitoring systems were really cool. I wrote an operating procedure for one industrial cleaning company for operating in explosive dust environments after a coal dust explosion killed a couple of workers..... what really scared me though is high pressure steam. It can reach out and kill you without you even knowing it’s there.
Super cool video. Had all of the information I was looking for.
Very informative video. Please keep em coming. I worked for GE in Australia for 9 years and it is good to see the equipment being used. Same with the SEL relays on the doors. I mostly did gas plants in Australia and Asia but did get to do a few coal ones too.
@ 13:59 We don't light off a boiler with the coal and heat up the boiler an d then add water. Good what to get an explosion. Fill the boiler with water to the proper level, then you light off the boiler.
The high side voltage on step up transformer (GSU) is 345KV (phase to phase) That info is on the nameplate by high side tap settings chart.
I've been in "The Control Room(tm)" -- not when the plant was active, and long before 9/11. One could spend hours showing and explaining a power plant. I've had the day long tour of Cliffside (NC) back when it was 5 turbines. It was recommissioned with a massive single turbine long ago. You didn't mention it, but my guide was very keen on explaining why the turbine hall is so big... so they have space to dismantle the turbine for servicing.
They don't filter CO2 out of the coal, that comes _after_ it's burned. The crushed coal (dust) is filtered to remove sulfur and various heavy metals. If they have the proper scrubbers on their smoke stack most of what's coming out is steam. Ash is collected, and much of the CO2 is ("should be") sequestered.
I've been in a few control rooms. Not sure what a bad guy is going to do by seeing a few screens.
And I don't know about this specific plant but I'm 95% sure none of the CO2 is sequestered
All water vapor leaving the towers. Steam is indivisible. Thanks a lot friend. SC Navy vet.
Been through so many coal fired plants being a union laborer in the Ohio Valley. This is rather smaller and much cleaner than what I'm used to seeing.
Pittsfield Massachusetts....weird to hear. I played baseball across from the abandoned GE plant. Apparently their waste pond glows at night. They had to plastic line it when I was about 14 to prevent ground seepage
I have learned in this 32 Minutes more than the last few year at the lockdown
Especially when you started s curse which should help me for a next training/education
I had a randomly decided to look up what a coal fired power plant boiler looks like - was somewhat disappointed in that regard, but, but... there was so much else I didn't know I needed to know. 👍
Glad you enjoyed it! As I'm sure you figured out, I'm an electrical guy, not a boiler guy. I will say that seeing a 19 story boiler is a pretty amazing experience though!
Isophase bus ducts are typically just carbon steel. The separation distance between the conductor and the duct is enough to reduce losses to a negligible amount. Nice plant. I have been at quite a few and always like seeing them.
What's interesting is bassically the boiler the coal is ground to a fine dust and is bassically a controlled explosion as well built an airport with structural bolts that same size there a pain to work with
At 14:44 - The 820000 kW is the output power / shaft power of the 20 stage turbine, the generator output is 991000kVA at 26000kV and 22006 Amps at the busbar. And those generator HV busbars are alu-conductors in steel casings filled with an inert gas, problably SulfurHexafluoride - SF6 or Co2, fed through the generator breaker, that odd-shaped box just before the elbow going through the flooring.
Otherwise great vid...
Don't quite know where it's coming from, but somehow tech.-vids or "walk-arounds" sticks me to the couch far more than any sport - except maybe when they're showing STIHL timbersports..;)
Are Kilos standards on this context?
Megas would make those huge numbers prettier.
I spent ten years of my life at a coal power plant in Arkansas age 18 to 28. Low cost power and good jobs.
13:39 spring hanger cans above the penthouse, holding up the pressure parts, headers inside the penthouse. This allows for thermal expansion when the boiler heats up
I'm very familiar with MegaWatts, and 820 sure is a lot of them. But I forget 1 Gigawatt is a BILLION Watts, the scale is startling to hear out loud.
For real. Throughout the video I was thinking to myself "Ok, those numbers are _too_ big"
Remember, Doc's DeLorean needed 1.21 gigawatts electric to time travel.
That was so awesome thanks so much it would be cool to see a gas power plant too
Im still so sad that current world situation cancelled our class trip to Natural gas burning powerplant :/
Would have been so cool to see a "Huge jet engine" spinning turbine.
Fascinating tour, thanks for taking us along with you!
A fine example of revolutionary 19th Century energy technology.
By pure chance I'm reading about the Sayano-Shushenskaya (Atomic Accidents, James Mahaffey) disaster right now and your video pops up in my suggestions feed. Very timely and very interesting. :O
Do they utilise the generator heat for heating the local community etc? Here in Finland every power plant also heats the city nearby.
Would love to get hot water from nearby plywood plant. Instead we are using expensive electricity for heating :/
No that's not typical in the US. Generally these plants are in rural locations, often close to the mines. Transporting the stream would be unfeasible
I live near a plant in Texas.
Cool to see nameplate Pittsfield mass.
Was born there.
Okay. So you got things a little earlier than when they happen..
Around 10:00... What they do before its burned is run it through magnetic separators to pull any junk or trash out.. (like bolts or broken parts of the train, or any trash that came from where the coal was gathered)
Then, it goes into these GIANT hoppers via a junction tower. It is fed out of the hoppers into pulverizers that crush that coal into smaller than baby powder particles, and is fed into the boiler.
The scrubbers dont come into play until after the coal is burnt. After it is combusted, the ash and gases are sent into the scrubber system and precipitators, then out of the stack.
Some plants use both scrubber and precips, some use either.. but Im pretty sure all have to use a scrubber these days
I am glad you posted. I was thinking the same thing.
Interestingly, the pulverized coal is numerically transported up to the boiler from the pulverizers.
So Ryan, How many windmills would it take to replace this Power Plant? How large is the overall site in acres? What and how is the 500KVA DC line used?
14:00 those are the hanger rods that suspended all of the reheater and superheater elements that are inside the fire box
Great Video
Ryan. Thank You Very Much.Very Educational
Take Care and Godspeed!
not sure why i watched this, i work at an airport, but it was very interesting! thanks!
9:00 Do they spray down the coal before sending it through the tunnel, to help reduce the dust problem?
Probably, I know it is done elsewhere.
What is the reluctance of the coal industry to use scrubbing. I understand there are some 200 plants that do use it & it pipes out very clean stuff.
I have spent many days cleaning out clinkers the size of houses in these type of units.
Hi refractory man bottom ash demo yuck
18:43 i remember when Fort Peck, Montana's 185.25 MW dam and powerhouse needed a new transformer.....
they used this HUGE semi with like 100 tires (idk if it was 100....but it was more than 18 wheels!!)
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even with all the tires spreading the ground pressure out..... it still put deep groves in the roads
every soft spot in the road bed was found that day..... and left behind a nice "hole" when it found one
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the Corps of Engineers had to pay MT-DOT to repair the roads
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as far as lifting it.... i think they used hydraulics
no way a cable and gears.... like a normal crane has.... would be able to lift it
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however, hydraulics can lift/pull a CRAP TON of weight, even with a tiny hand pump...... its just going to take 6 hours to lift 1 inch lol
but im sure they used electric pumps to make the operation a BIT quicker!
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fort peck dam is 4 miles long..... worlds largest hydraulically earth filled dam
the lake has more shoreline than the coast of cali....1700 miles.... and ~240 feet deep
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"hydraulically earth filled" just means they used dredges to mix the dirt from the river....with water
then pumped the "slurry" threw pipes to the dam.... let it run out of the pipe..... and the water run off
leaving behind just the dirt
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and they slowly built up a MASSIVE dam..... basically making "mud pies" like we did as kids
just on an industrial scale
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a lot of out-of-town people think its just a big hill.....as its just covered in grass....not steel or concrete like people expect a dam to be
we also tell these people to watch out for the "snow snakes"
they are white, to blend in with the snow..... and 3x more poisonous than a diamond-back rattlesnake
.
always funny to see them starring at their feet while walking threw 2 foot of snow HAHAH!
The reason for the heaters in the thawing shed being 480V instead of a higher operating potential has to do with the dielectric strength of the heating element insulation. Being 480V means that the peak potential to ground is only 392V (peak of 277V RMS; I know it is on a resistively grounded system but each phase is 277V to ground in normal operation). Higher potential elements would require much thicker insulation, which means that the nichrome or kanthal (probably the latter given that kanthal has a higher maximum temperature and the element casings are already running cherry red) wire in the elements would run hotter and thus be at more risk of melting.
Then there is the fact that 480V elements are a COTS item. And on top of the cost of custom elements, any cost savings from smaller wire would be eaten up by the 5.5MVA+ of conversion transformers as opposed to just tapping the extant 480V buss.
That is a GREAT point.
@@RyanJacksonElectrical Also on rewatch, the exhaust scrubbers remove SO2 not CO2.
With steam for that instead of electricity, would the maintenance costs eat up the energy saving?
@@b43xoit Electric heaters are used for radiant heat. Using steam would require building an insulated thaw house and soaking cars in it for extended periods of time. IR gets the cars hotter faster.
Is the plant always this clean? My power plant is roughly the same age and looks about 50 years older.
Actually, yes. They take great care to keep it clean. In fact, they hose everything down so often that they have to worry about cleaning liquids more than they have to worry about all the coal!
@@RyanJacksonElectrical I hear stories from guys who have been at my plant from the beginning and it used to get firehosed every night. Reduction in manpower now prevents this.
jrsnowden25 most power plants keep them clean because if coal dust accumulates that can be a big fire hazard
I imagine that those support bolts extend down to or even into bedrock. 10k ton boiler won’t take anything less to support it
Boilers are hung to allow for thermal expansion. Water vapor is not steam. IPP units can put out 1050-MW each.
As a proponent for nuclear energy, I need to understand how the other industries work. This video was educational for me at least if it helps.
Arent there a couple system that alos use optical sensors right inside a rack and in case of any flash instantly trigger a huge 3-phase shorting mekanism to blow up the relay "controlled" and protect the rack thats been worked on?
Yes sir. Eaton's arc quencher, for example.
Thanks for the great video. I think the 500 kV applies only to the DC link to southern California. The switchyard may be less. The AC to the DC rectifier would need 0.707 times 500 kV, right?
One other point: the fossil fueled power plants will have to be replaced with renewable energy -- wind or solar. The timeframe is about 2035, but there may be efforts to speed that up to much sooner.
Great video, thanks. Couple of things: transformers are normally drained to move them and are shifted on rails similar to railway track (bullhead). Other thing, are the generator unit transformers used also for starting with reverse power flow?
I'm not sure, sorry.
They have start-up transformers that are used specifically for that purpose.
I think they just don't want you in the control room. NERC Cyber Security Standards - Controlled Access Area just means that you have to be escorted into that area by an authorized person at all times and be logged.
While they do treat the coal before being transported to the silos, most pollutants are removed by a scrubber on the back end of a unit.
The main reason the boiler is suspended from the ceiling is to allow for the boiler to grow as it is heated. The bottom of the boiler sits in what's called a neck seal. This keeps a water seal between the bottom of the boiler and the pantleg /SFC as the boiler grows or shrinks.
Around 15:35 you are looking into the "dog house" or the exciter room. This is not the generator.
I'm going to assume the control room at 23:57 is for the cooling towers based on the layout.
Just a few notes on your video.
Nathan Nesbit, damn UO’s. So nit picky.
Man, this is so cool, especially the view at 12:15. I still have to watch the rest of the video but this is nice.
Thank you for the video sir I really enjoyed it and learned a lot
5:30 Why is it you can't unload frozen train? Conveyor lubrication freezing? Coal chunks get glued together by ice while train is in transit? Too much water gets condensed on coal after conveyor inside plant?
ilitvinov multitude of reasons. Not being able to get all the coal out of the cars (getting the fuel you paid for, every piece matters), belts trying to transport too much weight (scales and speed switches monitor tonage rates and belt movement in pulses and abnormal readings or speed can trip the belts), blocked diversion gates, plugged chutes, damaged rollers, and that’s just some of the things that happen with the belts outside and inside the plant. Then it affects the feeders, pulverizers, and ultimately heat rate.
thank you for the knowledge!
I wonder how they control the risk of overheating bearings under those conveyor belts setting off the dust.
Thanks for this, it’s been awesome to see where it begins!
Holy shit...that was awsome!!!
Aw, thanks man!
What is the Thermodynamic Efficiency of this Coal-fired Power Plant (Given you're burning 1.2X10^6 pounds of coal per hour, I estimate a Thermodynamic efficiency of 43%)? Does this plant burn bituminous coal or anthracite coal?
Really enjoyed that, very interesting
Very interesting! I heard IPP is going to be converted to gas soon so maybe a follow up to this video on the new plant would be cool.
Do you know how much steam pressure this plant runs? I talked to an old welder a few months back, who helped to build the Allen S. King plant in Bayport, MN, who referred to it as a "supercritical" plant, and the pipes had to handle something like 3900psi of steam pressure.
I do not, sorry. I'm an electrical guy, I only know enough of the other stuff to make a semi-coherent video. ;)
Supercritical operates at 3600 Psi and 1000°F. The piping is rated for much higher as the primary safety are usually set to open around 4250psi if something would cause an excessive pressure spike.
a bit late but the nameplate on the turbine says 2400 psi, which i would assume isn’t even the high pressure turbine since it seems low but i could be wrong
When you speak of this security I feel I can’t even mention what I’ve been allowed to do haha. But I’ve been into an old hydroelectric facility, and man, these sorts of places are amazing. The amount of engineering and work gone into it, the heavy equipment and technology, even old technology, it’s all amazing. I know coal gets a bad rap, but man we can’t cut it out of our lives yet, and plants like this are at the front of the technology to keep it burning cleaner. It’s pretty amazing how clean you can get it by burning dust, it doesn’t leave much behind. Hope to see more nuclear, but until the anti coal activists stop fear mongering about it, we have to keep up the coal.
Also the amount of electrical equipment is astronomical, and the fact it’s mostly worked on when live, the stuff that goes on is pretty amazing.
The cooling tower is used to cool the water that is condensed from the steam used to turn the turbines
They cool circulating water that circulate through the condenser.
The real reason the boiler hangs is for thermal expansion. The boiler grows downward over a foot
Ive seen power plant alternators cooled with hydrogen gas that’s pushed through the alternator core. Interesting to see one that has direct water cooling.
BMW alternators are water cooled and very expensive. I recently did one in an LI series, almost 2 days to do an alternator.
The cooling water pipes were labelled as being for stator cooling. Here in the UK in large alternators the stator is usually water cooled, and the rotor hydrogen cooled, I think I’ve got that the right way round.
Our very last coal fired power station is closing next month.
This video doesn’t show the vast amount of ancillary plant required to operate a large coal fired station; if it did it would probably run for hours.
I have not visited any power station here where we - the public - were not taken into the main control room.