Project I am starting now is about 17X bigger. Ignoring the gird and acting like we were going to "conserve" our way to energy efficiency really screwed up my retirement.
Really cool posts.Our concern is with the seemingly constant loss of coal/oil power plants.We just lost a major source in Brayton point Station.It generated elec from the mid sixties until very recently.Too bad they'd just put in major coal smog equipment and 2 HUGE cooling towers.A friend (Stationary Engineer there) now at Gillette tells me our power now comes from Canada...They're trying to build a major Natural gas plant nearby over an Algonquin line but the greenies are crying foul due to CO emmisions.We need power!
You can't just "disconnect" a generator. Force into an electric motor == electricity out. Electricity into a motor == force.
So take a steam driven 650 megawatt generator. That's 650 million watts. If you do the math, that means the steam turbine and boiler is basically a 87,166,400 horsepower motor (no joke).
Now picture a 87,166,400 horsepower motor on a dyno, running at redline. Now picture the dyno breaking, and the load on that motor dissapearing in an instant. Imagine the carnage that would result.
So you can't just "disconnect" the power when something goes wrong, you need to have a pre-built "load bank" that you can switch too (you should see the hardware to do that) and dump it into, while you ramp down the steam turbine to far less explody levels.
My co-op job was at the Beckjord power station in Cincinnati. What an awesome experience.
Reep, I think you missed a decimal or two...650mw = 872000ish HP
We run a 1235mw genny with no load banks...we bring it down to about 20%, by bypassing the turbine and dumping the steam directly to the condenser or the atmosphere, then have reverse power relays that open the output breakers. Motoring a generator is no fun (and very expensive).
You havent heard nothing til you hear a 345kv pneumatically operated breaker open, when you are about 20 ft away.
I've never ran head first into a loaded semi but I imagine the sound it would make is pretty damn close...not too mention how much the ground shakes
(Message edited by cupcake_mike on October 27, 2016)
>>>>You haven't heard nothing til you hear a 345kv pneumatically operated breaker open, when you are about 20 ft away.
Try having your head in the inspection port of a Westinghouse SF6 breaker when Bob Seiferling accidentally trips the thing. Reminiscent of standing in front of the speakers at a Mitch Ryder concert . . . . takes about a week for the hearing to recover.
I'm shocked! You're really getting a charge out of this; aren't you? I hate to sound so negative, but you must really be a live wire at parties. You positively need to keep abreast of current affairs; it's the best way to stay grounded.
When i was studying to be a nuclear reactor operator for the Navy, one of the processes to master was switching the generator into "ship's service" or the local power grid. We had a dial like a clock that was the synch indicator.
Switch over just as it hits 12 o'clock and it makes a little click. Do the same at 6 o'clock and it would lift the very heavy generator almost a foot off the floor. that's a BAD thing.
As for 9 volt batteries, I discharged a new one completely when I touched the terminals to top and bottom braces. Hurt a bit, felt like it blew my jaw off. I was 13, never done that again...
I'm still laughing about the JOLT ad. Not sure how many here recall the hilarious history of Buell and "JOLT Man".
Those were the days.
He made his first appearance ..... totally to our surprise ..... the weekend Mr. Buell went topsy turvy on the Billet Mettallic S1 on the front straight ....covered live on ESPN.
Cool little video on the power production, but a little vague on the Texas connection. The Texas grid is basically isolated from the national grid. There are a few connections, but they are maintained open.
Been a nuclear power plant worker for the last 30+ years. Currently doing engineering modifications on obsolete or poorly performing equipment.
Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2016 - 08:44 am:
I work in a coal fired power plant 3 units! 2018-2019 we are lising two do to environmentalist. Hopefully we can get natural gas in as planned cause we are needed to balance to power grid for the nuke plant across the river from us. People really do not understand how the grid works I know I did not till I worked here.