Inside a coal-fired power plant

This coal power plant generates much of Southern California's electricity but is slated to be converted to burn natural gas in the next decade which will reduce fuel consumption and emissions output. Union Pacific currently serves this plant with coal from Utah and Colorado.

[@ignatiusdemonseed]

I spent 38 years in the power generation biz, 22.5 years in a coal-fired power plant, the balance as a generation dispatcher. I've been retired 2 years now and I tell ya, I still miss the biz. It gets in your blood, especially the plant work. Operating and maintaining those great static steam ships is simply an amazing career.

[@charleslacombe359]

Great at putting you to sleep too ! I used to find a nice warm place to sleep out in the Screen house with the high pitched screech of the Circ pumps, Lol Sometimes we'd work 70-80 hrs a week during outages/overhauls. I'd have the insulation guys make me up a nice mattress ! And use a bag of saw dust for a pillow ! Lol I used to get double time after 8hr day, and Sat and Sun too. Then I'd do the Cha Ching dance on payday !!!

[@franknapolitano9144]

@@charleslacombe359 ...Union Labor there ! LOL !

[@mckinleymac3452]

@@franknapolitano9144 Yep. Union guys are always bragging about how much they make, for as little as they work.

[@healthguy79]

Is your pension enough?

[@kevinpillai4474]

Sir will foal power plant end?

[@phillipstahl3957]

Base load of our electric grid. Lots of good jobs, good people, and keeps the lights on when it's dark out and the wind isn't blowing. Love working at coal plants!

[@mattharper588]

Im a retired Union Boilermaker and now a days every entrance to the plants have ear plugs available and hearing protection is required

[@charleslacombe359]

WHAT !!??? I CAN'T HEAR YOU ! I WORKED IN A POWER PLANT !

[@charleslacombe359]

I knew quite a few boiler makers, Good Trade, Good bucks too ! They worked for Thomas O'Connor which is a good sized Company on the east coast !

[@franknapolitano9144]

@@charleslacombe359 So did I at Merrimack Station in Bow NH. Great place to learn a trade and become a Stationary Steam Engineer down the road. That's what I did after working for Local 29. The Plant is an excellent example of the Main Steam-Water Cycle for Students and is an excellent place for Boilermaker Students to improve their welding skills and Operational Mechanical skills !

[@erichsh58]

In the meantime, Berkeley just announced a ban on natural gas stoves in new construction. Instead, those stoves will be powered by plants like this.

[@joshuasutherland6692]

Electric stoves are less eifficent than gas stoves when the electricity is powered by fossil fuels.

[@charleslacombe359]

Thats like all the idiots that say we gotta go to Electric Cars !!! Yeah and the electricity is produced at a Coal Fired Plant ! Lol Not that I'm against electric cars, They have their place, but ppl just don't Think !

[@NotKimiRaikkonen1]

@@charleslacombe359 yeah, but the amount of carbon output for an electric car is equivalent to a gas car that gets 100+ mpg.

[@zs8784]

​@@NotKimiRaikkonen1 Not when the electric car is powered by - therefore is ultimately burning - coal! Yikes, think before you type next time dingus!

[@killingtimeitself]

@@charleslacombe359 worth noting that coal power production is only like 30% of the production average, and as noted in the description this plant will be switching to NG later but obviously electric stoves are as good as NG stoves in that regard. Though this entire thing is overblown, the main concern with NG stoves in households has to do with air quality, there have been a number of studies recently suggesting negative affects on long term health simply by having a NG stove.

[@jhogan1960]

That ambient sound. I work in an RO Water Treatment Plant. That ubiquitous sound of electric motors and machinery. Love it.

[@Jemalacane0]

Gorgeous sound frequency.

[@charleslacombe359]

I recognize that ! Overhead trolley crane for removing the turbine blades in the overhauls !

[@bobl78]

that is extremely fascinating and I have been to power plants but it always scares me and i feel like I shouldn´t be there.. intense forces and temperatures that can kill you everywhere

[@Mike-01234]

No hearing protection be written up by safety guy if saw people inside the plant without hearing protection, steel toe boots, safety glasses with foam seal around the edge keep dust out of the eye. Last few years they added gloves have to keep clipped to your side at all times. If your seen without those gloves get written up.

[@richmiller9844]

That's why everything is now made in China!

[@integratedindustrialknowle4665]

Safety culture is important security of employees and their dependents. Any injury and illness is suffered by families of victims.

[@charleslacombe359]

Oh God ! We used to throw bottles at the "97" days since the last accident banner"!!! Lol

[@Neighborhood_hooligan]

Just got a job working on power plant boilers shipping out to my first job site next week wish me luck

[@TheVastoLordes]

Gl

[@Neighborhood_hooligan]

Legolous73 thank you brotha

[@arsh_07]

Good luck Although I think I am late

[@Neighborhood_hooligan]

S!LENT K!LLER never too late I appreciate it! I just started my first outage this week and man is it awesome!

[@TheMNrailfan227]

Those have to be the biggest turbines I’ve ever seen

[@mckinleymac3452]

If you're ever in Vegas then go check out the Hoover dam. Take the $1 tour where you go to the river bed where the turbines are located. Massive. I've heard they are small by comparison to other dams.

[@shamdarkhan1707]

How many Mega Watts it produces?

[@roberth7691]

@John Duffy not sure where you came up with that number. The plant they are in is the Intermountain Power Plant, and there are 2-950 MW gross units. After subtracting auxiliary load, you are getting about 893 MW net generation per unit.

[@bobl78]

2:35 what is that ? Steam valves?

[@newyorker641]

Sieht aus wie die Frischdampfventile

[@cybertrade7908]

Moving to gas probably means that elecricity bills will zoom upwards !

[@syntaxerorr]

That last shot is interesting. I always thought that those turbines spun faster that what is show in the video. Also sitting vertically, is that an electric motor connected to a smaller electric motor?

[@davidkinasevych8439]

The "slow moving" turbine shaft was not in operation. It was on "turning gear" or "barring gear." It's a way of keeping a standby turbine ready to go when needed. When in operation, these turbines spin at 3600 RPM.

[@davidkinasevych8439]

The electric motor sitting vertical is the turning gear drive motor

[@KennIskov]

The "barring" gear slowly turns the shaft so that it will not "set" with a slight bend in it as it would if left static for a period, simply of the great weight in the generator. A set of even a couple of mm could create devastating vibration once a unit gets up to full rotational speed.

[@bobsmith3291]

@@davidkinasevych8439 and what frequency is that eh dave

[@gavendb]

@@bobsmith3291 60hz

[@ARTinDECAY]

Where’s the control room

[@johnspeed_]

I wonder how many RPM’s those turbines are running?

[@kevinpringle7982]

John A. For 60 Hz market (North America) turbines spin at 3600 RPM for coal/natural gas and 1800 RPM for nuclear and some very large coal plants.

[@johnspeed_]

Kevin Pringle interesting, thanks for sharing!

[@gregorymalchuk272]

@@kevinpringle7982 Wait, why would large coal fired power plants use 1,800 rpm turbines? I know nuclear power plants do it because the lowering the speed and increasing the size reduces moisture erosion in the low pressure turbines, but why large coal plants?

[@kevinpringle7982]

Gregory Malchuk I was referring to some of the older (1950s) vintage cross compound (split train) coal units that have large LP turbines. The HP and IP train run at 3600 RPM and The LP train runs at 1800. A lot of this has to due with the size of these LPs and limiting factors (centrifugal forces and design technology at the time).

[@gregorymalchuk272]

@@kevinpringle7982 Ahh, yes! That makes sense. I looked back through some old books and indeed back in the 1930s through the 1950s, there were some fossil fuel fired turbines running at 1800 rpm.

[@cgcgundersen]

Is this out in Delta or the one by Lake Powell?

[@danielmadera1144]

Delta

[@MrBoomBoom225]

This whole time I thought power plants were nuclear (too much simpsons) it blows my mind that we’re still using steam technology

[@GreatBasinCarShops]

Nuclear is still steam technology, the only thing that changes is the heat source. Boiling water is still the most efficient and productive method of converting thermal or atomic energy into electricity.

[@hansemist]

Why don't they use these gas-burning steam power plants in the Philippine Islands?

[@thomasjefferson5727]

Fuel availability.

[@mckinleymac3452]

No one on the islands are smart enough to build it

[@Mike-01234]

Most companies are moving toward Natural gas if they can cost lot less to maintain can be remotely started maintained by a few people gas fires a turbine turns a generator. Coal plants need 500-1000 employees and contractors.

[@danielmadera1144]

What is the name of the power plant?

[@expert8997]

George

[@roberth7691]

Intermountain Power Plant

[@TonyFarley-pv3nk]

So I know you're a stalker is probably like 200 ft in the air you say your smoke's running at that layered atmosphere where is it running during the daytime compare to night time do you think that's where you're having a throttle rotation out

[@walmartbag6937]

Im a power engineer❤

[@billfeld5883]

Watching a coal train heading your way right now!!! 2021

[@Mike-01234]

My company owns a few coal plants the trains are remote controlled by the control room all automated. The coal mine is close by so it just goes back and forth on the short run to the mine and back.

[@davidzoppetti6376]

🤬 thats so creepy

[@omorkhan3437]

Too much noise.how could anyone work there!!!!? won't it effect their hearing ???

[@NovaScotiaKevin]

Ear plugs. Duh.

[@Justin-Outdoors]

Still cleaner than green energy!

[@masterbateman2686]

How?????

[@Justin-Outdoors]

@@masterbateman2686 very low emissions due to advanced filtration systems. Not to mention all the electric cars, batteries and accessories made in foreign countries sourced from coal power that do not have advanced filtration. You’re green energy emissions is still there just moved across the world.

[@killingtimeitself]

@@Justin-Outdoors this is not explicitly true though, natural gas is quite literally cleaner than this, and as for base load power generation nuclear is markedly cleaner, and certain renewables are likely to be advantageous to burning cancer dust. And i mean yes air filtration but if you're seriously filtering the air from a coal plant you need to reconsider priorities.

[@OhKopo]

@@Justin-Outdoorshave you heard of waste

[@larrynault2683]

Been inside many coal plants---the noise factor in this video is greatly exaggerated. I am a union boilermaker.

[@GreatBasinCarShops]

Nothing has been exaggerated, this is the raw audio straight out of the camera. I don't believe in altering recordings to make them more exciting or awe inspiring.

[@johnhines541]

I am a graduate apprentice boilermaker, and there is nothing exaggerated, Remember, a lot of the times we are in a powerhouse is during a shut down, they were on the operations floor when it was running. On the turbine floor is always noisy, Try walking onto the turbine floor of the Sammis plant In Stratton Ohio when 3 of the 7 units were running, very noisy.

[@user-rm8gk8gr3g]

@@johnhines541Spot on

[@backyardshenanigans9212]

It’s about decibels not the noise itself

[@andrej1659]

Jesus rose from dead

[@TheMNrailfan227]

Shut it

[@Terk131]

The plant I worked in was similar, same turbine and all. We burned crude #6 and later natural gas. I was laughing looking at the main steam too valves for hen at the end the turning gear motor on the turbine.