What is a Power Plant?

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In this video, we’re going to look at what a Power Plant is, different types, and why automation is important in the Power Plant business.

In its simplest form, a Power Plant, known also as a Power Station, is an industrial facility used to generate electricity.

To generate power, a power plant needs to have an energy source. One source of energy is from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Then we also have nuclear power, and finally renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, wave and hydroelectric.

Originally, the only source of power was Direct Current or DC systems, but it wasn’t until Alternating Current, or AC systems were introduced that the power could be carried the distances necessary to be suitable for distribution to the masses.

Hydroelectric Power Plants generate power by converting the force of water to turn large generators.

Hydroelectric Power Plants fall into three different categories.
First up is “Impoundment”.

An Impoundment facility typically uses a store of river water from a dam in a reservoir.

Next up we have “Diversion”. A Diversion is fairly similar to an Impoundment facility, but may not need the use of a dam, but works by channeling a portion of a river through a canal or a penstock.

The last type of Hydroelectric Power Plant is “Pumped Storage”. Pumped Storage stores its energy by pumping water uphill to a reservoir at a higher elevation.

Thermal Power Plants generate electricity by converting heat into electricity, essentially by burning a fuel. One example of this is a nuclear power plant.

Nuclear power plants use reactors heat to turn water into steam. The steam is then sent through a turbine, which, as we’ve already learned, generates movement of a generator, which in turn generates electricity.

A coal power plant works in much the same way, but instead of a nuclear reactor heating water to make steam, the heat from the burning coal powers a steam turbine.

The next type of power plant we will look at is a solar power plant. This type of plant uses the suns energy to convert into electricity.

This is achieved by using Photovoltaic, or PV panels made up from a number of semiconductor cells that release electrons when they are warmed by the thermal energy of the sun.

Solar energy is one of the cleanest ways of generating electricity. The solar panels get connected to the grid and can be used to supplement a thermal power plant resources.

Last, but not least, we have Wind Power Plants.

Wind Power Plants, or Wind Turbines, get their energy from the wind by connecting a generator to the blades. The rotational movement of the blades caused by the wind, powers a generator.

Like many things nowadays, Power Plants are controlled using a PLC, Programmable Logic Controller, or DCS, Distributed Control System.

The ability for condition monitoring of all the plant items enables us to determine what is running efficiently, and what could fail.

This enables us to proactively maintain plant equipment before it fails, rather than reactively fixing broken equipment.

From within a control room, a full SCADA, or a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system can monitor and control temperatures, speeds of pumps and motors and open and close valves.

By monitoring the demand, and trending at which times of the day the demand is highest, plants can adjust the speed of pumps automatically according to the time of the day, something that wouldn’t be possible without the use of an automation control system.

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YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGVDu1z5YQ8
Created:	11. 3. 2021 11:49:10

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What is a Power Plant?