Power Plant Overview and Components

I've been documenting some power plants in my "towns blog" with the label "powerPlant." Here I'm recording photos of equipment in a power plant other than the generator units and control panels.

I found enough photos of feeders and pulverizers that they have their own notes.

I start with some overview videos

safe_image for 9:50 YouTube Video
Alabama Power's Plant Miller How Electricity Is Generated 3D Animated Tour

5:42 video @ 0:14

16:00 video @ 1:34

 

Mike Rodriguez posted
Museum piece
Ronald Amberger: From the era when machines were multicolor brass bound works of art.

Ronald Amberger: I was engineer at Elliott for many years and was responsible for everything on the front end: Governor, servomotor, overspeed trip, valve gear and steam chest and valves. Brings back memories.

Leonard Werda: I believe I seen this at GE training center in NY a nice piece.

Glenn Cahill: Leonard Werda it’s in Houston now

Joe Prindle: I ran a 7500 kilowatt GE unit built in 1926 at the Lynn River Works. 400 psig inlet, 135 pound automatic extraction and a Westinghouse condensor and air ejector. It was unit 1 at Consolidated Papers in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. It was a great job and I loved running that turbine, it had a lot more personality than our other two units, both Dresser Rands built in 1976 and 1995.

Randy Basham: I operated 2 of those. 300kva and a 400kva.

Rowland Ketchersid: Lol there is a sign there at the ge training center Houston that says no pictures

 

UNION Millwright posted

Zach Hoppe: Ai

Mikayla McHugh: Zach Hoppe not this time! This is a BASF Gas turbine in Germany. This photograph was taken in 1917 during ww1. They had woman in the powerhouse doing general maintenance and millwrighting because there was a critical shortage in male labor from so many of them being sent to work. After the war they were pushed back out of the workforce. Woman like her crawled so that woman like me could run.

[The turbine must be out-of-frame because the thing that is spinning is the dynamo. At least the unshielded spokes have a handrail in front of them.]

Terry Haldin shared
The good old days‼️

Andrzej Witek commented on Mike's post
This one is our steam turbine - fully working till today [Apr 25, 2024]. STAL LAVAL 3,96 MW.

 

Joean Ngew posted

Pieter Langenhoven: HP, IP and double LP steam turbine.

Marshall W Ken: Pieter Langenhoven Yep, and about 80% of the power is generated in that 1st. (HP) stage, also known as the impulse stage.

Jack Jennings posted
Boiler guts
Phillip Ball-Reed: Superheats?

7 photos of the many pipes inside a Combustion Engineering tangential fired super-critical boiler. The post has many interesting comments. "corner burner" is another term seen in the comments. 

6 photos of a relief valve replacement in Fr. Martin Power Station, Maidsville, WV.

Giving hydro power some attention:

Alabama Power posted
Building the foundation.
Image Courtesy of the Alabama Power Archives.

Andy Michel posted

Historical Photo:

It appears the turbine bearing oil level is a bit high...

It drives me nuts that they won't give the name of the dam so that I can put this photo into the correct notes. (Update: a comment below identified this as Ice Harbor.)

Erin L. Wining posted
Nothing like a chinook wind melting the snow accumulation to bring on the power.
Jereme Harris: We are running full tilt and the rivers still outrunning us currently. Hopefully it will settle down over the weekend.

Greg Mallory posted
Nice clean BFP, steam driven.
Dennis DeBruler: I've learned today that BFP means boiler feed pump.

Greg Mallory posted
Front to back ...... BFP Booster Pump, Booster pump drive gear, BFP, BFP turbine. Every thing on the same shaft.
William B. Hearn: Understand that, hot and cold alignment could be different. If I remember correctly, at Michell #3 our GE Turbine to Worthington BFP was 0.010” low turbine to pump on a cold turbine. Zurn force oil lubricated coupling.
Tim Golden: Has to be PITA to align. [I'm too shy to ask what PITA means.]
Dan McQuade: We have several like this, but the main BFP is on the opposite side of the turbine.
William B. Hearn: The only plant I worked that had BFP booster pumps was Pleasants PS. They were motor driven separately from the Steam Turbine Driven BFP’s.

 

JR Mueller posted
HP [high pressure] turbine inspection underway, 650MW unit
Cory Stansbury: As a nuke guy (i.e. garbage steam), it's always amazing how small those first stages are on superheated and supercrit steam units.

JR Mueller posted seven photos with the comment: "Feed pump turbines getting overhauled this outage."

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Greg Mallory posted two photos with the comment: "Man these were bears!   Soot blowing air compressors!   300+ psi, multi-stage"

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Greg Mallory posted two images with the comment: "Trash! The QRO exam required to operate a waste boiler is probably one of the most challenging a Steam Engineer with ever take!"

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TVA posted four photos of "workers are installing 244 new, more efficient blades on two low-pressure turbine rotors" for the Watts Bar Unit 2.

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Some power plant components need big cranes. In this case, all four of the original steam generators are being replaced.

1 of 4 photos posted by Caleb Johnson, cropped
Turbine and generator outage, getting ready to cut the rotor.

Facebook Reel

Brian Kroeker posted three photos with the comment: "On annual shutdowns some people had to check all of the tubes and wash them from the mud drum. Tempered water was used from the deaerator while the boiler was warm and still wet so it was quite warm in there. They gave us goggles for PPE (LOL). This was decades ago."

Joe Finamore: That is a large mud drum!

Brian Kroeker: To think that this was done in the days of adding Hydrazine (shudder).

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Wayne Karberg posted two photos with the comment: "Water Cooled Stator, Eastlake U5.  Now a synchronous condenser.  In crossview stereo."

[All five units at Eastlake got converted. "Condenser" is another word for capacitor. And the comments talk about supporting the VAR of the grid. That is, I think they are using these to offset the inductive loads on the grid caused by induction motors. Now that I'm thinking about it, I presume that transformers also introduce an inductive load. Some comments talk about how it was tricky starting up one of these units.]

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22:06 video @ 16:17

Bull Run Power Plant plans to convert a generator to a synchronous converter.

Greg Mallory posted two images with the comment: "You don't see these everyday! Flue Gas Desulfurization Jet Bubbler System ...... All exiting flue gas is introduced to a bath of lime slurry, no gas goes untouched by slurry. A lot different than conventional wet and dry scrubbers."

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Frank Huang posted three images with the comment: "dust collector--work with filter bags and cages."

[A comment indicated that they had to replace the "bags" about every four months. I think bag houses have replaced electrostatic precipitators.]

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2 of 34 interior shots of a 1927 power plant posted by Decay Addiction. (source)

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b. At least some of the panels still have their stone facing.

4 photos of some old boilers

11:24 video about steam turbines (1 unit of water makes 1600 units of steam)

8:47 video about steam turbines

11:12 video about the Turbinia, steam turbines and cavitation. Turbinia did 34.5 when the record had been 23.5 knots.

The Geysers, CA: 900mw geothermal complex, 20 plants

Google label: (Satellite)

Note that 900mw is less than just one modern fuel-fired or nuclear plant.

I have several labels beginning with "energy." But I don't have one for geo. It still takes special geological structures to produce geothermal power, so I'm not going to make an energyGeo label since these plants are rare. (The oil and gas industry is researching for ways that drilling and fracking technologies can produce more geothermal fields.)

geysers

Corey Johnson posted
One of about twenty power plants in The Geysers geothermal power complex in California. The system produces about 900 MW in total.
Gary Wetzler: 835 MW total for the 18 plants.
[Some comments discuss steam generators for nuclear plants built in the 1970s that used a new alloy for the tubes. The new alloy caused premature failure of the tubes.]
Bob Koch: 900 MW is impressive with this set up.
Corey Johnson: Lesley Otwell Nice! Yes there are a lot of eyes on it in that region because it's renewable power that doesn't depend on weather. Even oil and gas industry is getting into it to apply their sub-surface expertise.
Jimmy Mac McMullen: Not many places to build them at all .
Corey Johnson: Jimmy Mac McMullen That's a reason why there is R&D going on to try to stimulate production in other areas - fracking is one idea, and being able to drill the required depths both vertical and horizontal. There are even some ideas of using a completely artificial system and running supercritical CO2 as the heat transfer and working fluid.

bartellj, Dec 2021

geysers_map

geysers_geothermal

geysers_history11
"A million years ago, a plume of molten magma intruded close to the Earth's surface. The heat from this 1400˚F intrusion recrystallized the overlying rocks, making them hard and brittle, then caused fracturing to create permeability. Subsequent magmatic activity over the next half-million years maintained high temperatures as water seeped down through fractures to form a hot water geothermal reservoir. At about a quarter million years ago, the caprock overlying the ancestral Geysers reservoir fractured, allowing steam eruptions as the high temperature water boiled down to form the current steam reservoir."

USGS, Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
"Numerous geothermal wells are located In the Mayacamas Mountains, north of San Francisco. The Geysers cover 45 square miles between Lake, Mendocino, and, Sonoma counties; and provide power to Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Marin, and Napa counties. Commercial geothermal power has been continuously generated at The Geysers since 1960, and it is the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world. There are 18 geothermal plants which use heat from the earth's interior to produce electricity around the clock. The plants produce about 835 megawatts of electricity."
[This article provides a technical description of the underlying geology.]

"Although the nearby Clear Lake volcanic field was still erupting as recently as a few thousand years ago, there were never any geysers at this geothermal field. The Geysers is a misnomer that came from 19th century settlers to the area who misunderstood the hot springs and fumaroles bubbling and steaming away in the canyon of Big Sulphur Creek. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, a popular resort hotel operated in the area, while indigenous people of the region have visited the springs since prehistoric times." [nasa]

During the 1800s, the geysers were used for health spas and mineral water. [geysers_history11, click 1890]

geysers_history11, click 1923
"Grant and his family organize The Geysers Development Company and build a 35 kilowatt power plant, generating the first geothermal electricity in the Americas."

"Grant’s experiment with geothermal power fails due to competition from cheap oil, but it is only a temporary setback. In modern times, The Geysers Development Company goes on to become the most productive leaseholder in The Geysers." [geysers_history11, click 1934]

The health SPA business continues.

geysers_history11, click 1960
"PG&E completes Unit 1, the first commercial geothermal electric unit in the Western Hemisphere, generating 11 megawatts of electricity."

1980: The health SPA business ends.

1987: "Production peaks at The Geysers. Twenty-one power plants are in operation, with a total installed capacity of 2,043 megawatts. Over the next eight years, power generation rapidly declines as a result of pressure loss in the steam reservoir."

1989: "Geysers operators begin cooperative studies on the use of augmented water injection to create steam, sustain reservoir pressure and maintain power generation."

1995: "Calpine, NCPA and Lake County Sanitation agree to construct the Southeast Geysers Effluent Pipeline (SEGEP), a 29-mile pipeline to deliver treated wastewater to The Geysers."

"Delivery of wastewater to The Geysers commenced in October 1997. The original 29-mile pipeline, now lengthened to 40 miles to include effluent from additional communities in the Clear Lake area, delivers approximately 9 million gallons per day of secondary treated wastewater for injection into The Geysers Reservoir." [geysers_water]

2000: "Calpine acquires 19 Geysers power plants and associated steamfields. Consolidated ownership eliminates contractual barriers, allowing a fieldwide approach to sustainably managing The Geysers geothermal resource.

"Calpine constructs pipeline inter-ties (crossovers) linking steamfields and power plants, minimizing the need to vent wells during plant outages. During power plant shutdowns, the steam is diverted to other plants, reducing the loss of electrical generation."

2003: "Calpine and the City of Santa Rosa complete a 40-mile pipeline, bringing an average of 11 million gallons per day of treated wastewater to The Geysers and further helping to restore the steam reservoir."

I have not been able to determine if the sources of the water replenisment pipelines are from a watershed that would otherwise feed the aquaduct to southern California. Or if this water would otherwise end up in the Pacific Ocean.

geysers_water

"A direct relationship between water injection and low-magnitude seismicity has been firmly established. However, the relationships of fieldwide steam production and water injection to larger but less frequent seismic events are more complicated. Importantly, the frequency of seismic events greater than magnitude 3.0 has been trending downward since about 1990." [geysers_seismicity]

Since the first commercial plant in 1970, more than 400 production wells and 28 plants have been built. The capacity peaked at 2,034mw in 1987. [geysers, click video, @ 0:21] 

Screenshot

Screenshot

Given the above screenshot, these must be injection wells.

Satellite

The statistics for the geothermal field obviously depends on which year they were measured. Here is a June 2015 status: "At present, 424 wells produce a combined total of 125 billion pounds (62.5 million tons) of steam per year, with 21 turbine-driven generating units converting it into about 8.4 million megawatt-hours per year; or an instantaneous output of 955 megawatts, enough to supply power to approximately 1.2 million Californians. The Geysers is a vapor-dominated geothermal resource, meaning gaseous steam exists in the reservoir. The reservoir is found at a depth of a mile or more, and at a temperature of 500-600 degrees F....At present, there are 424 production wells at the Geysers producing 125 billion pounds (62.5 million tons) of steam per year and 88 wells used for injection of water. Those injection wells handle 96 billion pounds of water (48 million tons) per year, equating to 22,400 gallons per minute, or 248 gallons per minute per well. Therefore, 77% of the mass withdrawn from the reservoir is replaced on an annual basis. Water injection at The Geysers occurs into the geothermal reservoir, a mile or more deep, and not into near-surface aquifers. The geothermal reservoir is completed isolated from near-surface water supplies by a sealing caprock which precludes injection waters affecting the ground water supply." The wastewater is tertiary-treated and suitable for human consumption. The is also a Salton Sea geothermal field, but it has been harder to develope because it produces hot salt water rather than steam. "Some estimates put the total potential for the field at 2,000 megawatts. Development at the Salton Sea geothermal field has been slowed by the high up-front costs involved with brine-based geothermal power, and the lack of power transmission capacity from this isolated region to Los Angeles and San Diego." [california]

Santa Rosa provides a water replacement project description and some facts.

GreenFire Energy $2.7m research project via ThinkGeoEnergy