Small Scale Hydropower Plant Daily Cleaning and Maintenance

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[@TechAnalys1s]

Omg it’s not a short. Keep up the longer videos. Well done.

[@Thefreakyfreek]

Out of all the shorts on youtube his are the best I know not a verry hich bar but stil

[@TheMW2informer]

@@Thefreakyfreekthe only shorts on KZbin you can learn something from! The rest are almost diseducational.

[@croman191]

And that's pretty cool

[@trevorvanbremen4718]

Wanna see something cool??? A WAY long short! (And thankfully, it's not a short, it's OPEN so the angry pixies aren't dancing!)

[@simonsaysdie3155]

Right ugh it's so long I love it

[@LSD97123]

Electricity that powers your modern appliances comes from ancient machinery. And thats pretty cool

[@theradioweyr]

I see what you did there.

[@MRblazedBEANS]

Went from used to mill down grains and corn, to using the spinning and gearing up the motion to make it viable for a generator

[@su-25frogfoot74]

@@manitoba-op4jx You're talking about the same power plants that have eons of decades learned and the most modern and redundant systems on the market installed?

[@melonbobful6940]

@@manitoba-op4jx All electricity tastes the same.

[@elonmask50]

No that’s was something kool, I’m guessing there’s no reverse power relay on that set, or if there is, she’s set kinda lax since it didn’t reject that under speed sync. PS. I watched your prison story video twice, I really have no words, other than to say, you’re an amazing person, and thank you for sharing “it gets better”, three simple words that mean so much, regards and respect, Michael.

[@Wardevil80]

I'm an electrician and was also a trout hatchery worker for 4 years. Im starting to think that maybe a power plant job would be right up my alley lol.

[@-r-495]

years ago I used to find the infrastructure aspects of my job to be the most important. Examples: boiler house, central refrigeration, water chiller supply, water sanitation (industrial waste). There was a small facility with one open office/ctrl room and a dozen lockers and a break room. Large aquariums lined one of the walls of it. Outlet water was tested for compliance utilising the fish. Next to the jungle surrounding the chiller heat exchangers up on a roof that was my favourite part of the plant, including the bicycle ride down there..

[@LenKusov]

Fun fact, the guac/avocado thing is genetic, most people have the flavor gene to make guacamole taste good but a fair number don't. It's like cilantro. For most people, avocado tastes buttery and cilantro tastes kinda spicy/black-peppery, but if you lost the genetic lottery avocados taste like lawn clippings and cilantro tastes like dish soap.

[@-r-495]

Those who don’t like cilantro often have a taste for nordic treats I really can’t stand. Salty licorice for instance.

[@randacnam7321]

The fresh cilantro tasting like soap mutation also applies to hops.

[@buillioncubes]

And then there's people who like lawn clippings and dish soap.

[@DrpanProductions]

Yick I can't stand cilantro. And avocado doesn't taste like anything to me. Just plain like tofu. 😂

[@sambrose1]

My Mom has the cilantro gene

[@EddieTheH]

You know that weird phenomenon when you can smell a video? This definitely hits that!

[@chazlabreck]

😂 I had that green algi smell on memory

[@godlugner5327]

You know for some reason I thought it would smell like transformer ozone from a giant Lionel set

[@jay78862]

So happy to have another longform video

[@mxslick50]

People forget how much work it is to maintain a wet beaver. :) Love the new red paint on the panels, thank gods you didn't resort to the boring electrical gray!

[@jfbeam]

Well, a 100+ year old wet beaver. (there have been "self-cleaning" grates for many years now. I've only seen them in waste water plants, 'tho.)

[@m4tik539]

0:31 I love the "reactor SCRAM" light XD

[@Iamanidiot-v6i]

He should label it az-5 lol

[@hifiandrew]

the one above it.. even better.. radiation in containment level 8... reference from The China Syndrome 🤣🤣 brilliant

[@dragonfireproductions790]

there's an a3-5 check out his short​@@Iamanidiot-v6i

[@chieffirefigherplays]

@@Iamanidiot-v6ithere is one that is labeled like that,

[@chieffirefigherplays]

9:09 is when if you paused it right see all the lights they got no clue what they do, so they labeled them funny.

[@michaelladue5655]

WOW compound double worm gear drive, that is reduction right there.

[@MegaFPVFlyer]

I wonder if the immense reduction is to prevent "water hammering" the river (or whatever the correct term is)

[@-r-495]

It is sensible to keep it going slow at all times. Alloys weren’t what they are today. No CAD & CAM utilising material science for selection. But: Planned obsolescence was in the making.

[@sambrose1]

And it can't be back driven so you don't need a brake.

[@AS34N]

That screw mechanism to lift the gate is fascinating to watch lol 😂 could watch this stuff for hours. P.s. I BET that smells AMAZING 😂😂

[@SharpBalisong]

It’s called a worm drive. :)

[@tsm688]

as a hopeless amateur with an interest in sound engineering this place looks like a treasure trove of mineable sounds

[@Thefreakyfreek]

If you want i can send you sone interesting macine shop sounds or something

[@olivermatich2818]

you ain't hopeless, friend!

[@curtmcbee2238]

7:24 I love how operating a hydroelectric plant is 50% mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical engineering and the other 50% is basically: “the damn dam designers didn’t give us an instrument to show us how open the bypass gates are so why don’t we cut a triangle out of a beer box, duct tape it to this here chain, and use a magic marker to write some reference marks on a column”

[@JackSinger]

WOW those control panels look great! The red and yellow color combo is sharp.

[@who_is_joe]

That log strugling to pass through shouldnt be so entertaining

[@jaymzx0]

I was seriously cheering for it. "Go log go!" *floop* "Yeeea!"

[@charlesdeilke8364]

Flushing gates can be fun. Big trees getting exploded by diffuser blocks.

[@philmccole4309]

I spent 45 years as a power plant electrician, and I've never seen a square synchroscope! Now I can say I have!

[@esven9263]

Up until 2013 the only major purchaser of kale was pizza hut, who used it to decorate the salad bar.

[@cherrypepsi2815]

the whole "superfood" thing was always bullshit, just eat real food and not this weight loss garbage Same thing I always tell people about food: don't overthink it; calories in, calories out, and whatever your doctor tells you to eat. A homemade hamburger with real beef, cheese, and whatever you decide to pile on is ironically better for you than the mega-processed kale chips that people buy in grocery stores. If you really want to be healthy, just stop eating junk. I keep seeing people go on these "weight loss journeys" by eating exclusively garbage like kale and other artisan greens. My god- barely even 400 calories a day! You're not being healthy, you're starving your body! You're only losing fat because your body has to burn it to stay alive. Just do some pushups, run for a while, and replace the fat with muscle. I can't stand this whole culture of "I want to lose weight but I don't want to put in the work!"

[@b43xoit]

I used to eat some of the decoration.

[@andymcnabb6115]

As a hydro operator I love seeing how other plants are run. You guys are very manual, where the stuff I run is very automated. Also our units are vertical Francis units of much greater size…. The smallest unit I run is 60MW

[@Xsiondu]

Amount of times I was told "you just haven't had good guacamole" "you need to try it at my favorite restaurant" no Megan I don't like avocados. Also there's 3 Mexican restaurants in this town. I'm absolutely certain I've not liked their guacamole either.

[@darkwater72]

Fun Fact: Guacamole means "testicle sauce." The more you know......

[@3a.m.284]

Guac is amazing L take

[@b43xoit]

Number of times.

[@gameexpert385]

I just love the way the generator sounds when it spins down and up, but I bet it's pretty loud in there when it's running

[@justjoe7313]

It's VERY interesting to see the workings of the hydro powerplant! Thank you for posting the videos and letting us in :)

[@316neil]

Yes! A long form video! Thank you Chris 😊

[@Physicsduck]

You are sincerely welcome :) I'm glad you're enjoying them! :) Thank you for being here!

[@theradioweyr]

@@Physicsduck I never miss a chance to watch a grid sync. With Florida hurricanes I have synced generators with some success (when the neighbors get together to create a mini power grid) (2 vs 4 pole is difficult for little generators, for me anyway). I bought some Wilmar reverse relays as a beginning to developing something a little more safer and automatic but abandoned that after my solar/battery systems started getting finished.

[@MattTrevett]

Cool that as the gate was lowered that the water had to go somewhere, so it went over the nearby weir.

[@wesbrackmanthercenthusiast4695]

Man I love old style hydro, I really want to build a gristmill in Scioto county but lord knows the epa pricks wouldn't let me because everyone knows it's less damaging on the environment to ship bakers corner flower 400 miles by semi to my local grocery store from the packaging plant + farm to the plant traveling instead of doing local processing 😡 , shout out to the nice folks who restored rockmill on the hocking river but weren't allowed to install the dam but currently have to use a pump to run the largest overshoot water wheel in ohio

[@Cragified]

My favorite labels are the ones for the abandoned instrumentation.

[@starwolf621]

Very cool set of shots of things that happen at a Hydro plant, thank you for making this video!

[@Perri_Redder]

The first thing I thought of when I saw the magnet was demagnetizing arc flash. It made me laugh, they might just cook onto the enclosure. I figure I could tell what was what after a few minutes wandering around. Things do break unexpectedly sometimes, like dominoes. One time an 80 ft steam vent clogged up next to a switchgear. I was setting up some very large motors for a nearby water processing facility to help with a factory next door. A steam vent had gone unnoticed as a hazard because the pressure could never exceed the structural capability of the pipe(plumbing). Maintenance thought it would be a good idea to uncouple the pipe in the adjacent room. This instantly threw a jet of water, kicking the pipe into the MCC room. There it spun the elbow and shot 800 gallons of water under high steam pressure at the steel. Nobody was hurt, except for a perfectly good switchgear. Next month there was a flood. A quarter mile away the whole city was under water. Crazy times, but it was very fun setting up the switchgear and motors for a water processing facility.

[@magic.marmot]

OH! A new video on hydropower! I love learning stuff from you.

[@Venoli]

So happy to see more videos of maintaining those small hydropower plants! Just awesome. GIVE US MORE

[@LumpyFPV]

3:58 forbidden waterslide 😳🤌🏼

[@TomFynn]

Kale as in smoothies? Blearch. But cooked? With Kasseler, Kochwurst, pork belly and a side of potatoes? Also the occasional Schnaps? Give it a try. If too bitter, blanche it first, pour away the water and then cook it. Do not overcook, or else its just so much green goo. Like spinach is.

[@CranialMalfunction]

Ah, I see you're a cultured connoisseur of Grünkohl as well!

[@jlvcm]

Another fantastic video, don't stop making them. My boss taught the golden rule of synchronization: Never close the connection counter-clockwise from the frequency, it could blow the stator due to the difference in frequencies and the load that it suddenly puts in the opposite direction. (Protections may fail) I've seen generators blow up because of this.

[@billliscombe2912]

I do the same intake cleaning in the UK for a 2000MW Coal Station.

[@craignehring]

I absolutely LOVE videos like this!! Keep em coming Please?

[@TsunauticusIV]

THANK YOU for posting a longer video.

[@butwhytharum]

our plant just changed condenser water sources for our chillers/District cooling heat sink. before our travelling screens would "roll joints" out of sea weed, with how much came through.

[@Ycytd5d78vcy]

When was the last time those worm gears were aligned. Holy cow!!!!

[@-r-495]

Thank you for this long format, happy you didn’t find a floater whilst cleaning the rake. I like the new labels, I hope you didn’t take a past comment as critique but as inspiration 😊 Stringent change ctrl can be a nuisance, especially when one is upgrading a plant but can’t test the implementation before.

[@-r-495]

I was wondering how efficient the turbine is and if there are any feasible upgrades that could make the plant more efficient. I recall our turbine had a few different variables that influenced the geometry of the nozzle and the turbine itself. The plant had been upgraded in the 1980s and we had the task of upgrading it forty years later.

[@thedragonhunter]

finally an actual video instead of a short

[@KudoYoung]

Cool Video. I work in a small heating plant. Just saturated steam generation no cogeneration with superheat or turbines.

[@Bobsadventuresfl]

Wow, that was pretty cool. 😎👍

[@Drmcclung]

Much much cleaner than it was 3 years ago! How's the other plant holding up after the huge refurb project?

[@u574254]

What a great job. I hope you look forward to going to work every day.. pretty sure I would . But I would clean the grates an hour or two after lunch…

[@edic2619]

Really cool video.

[@LumpyFPV]

Cooooool! Dude, I absolutely love your shorts and these longer vidyas are pretty great too. Keep em coming, hoss!

[@0dbm]

Love the old stuff , thank you

[@hartsfire5706]

so happy to se a longer video,, thank you.

[@trash365247]

That’s a great video. Love seeing the everyday things that need to be done

[@link12313]

All that stuff scooped up from the cleaning grates should be put in a compost pile next to the powerplant and used to feed a garden there.

[@fidikvien7682]

Would love to see how things go when water levels are high after a heavy rain. How do you coordinate how much to open gates and let the river bypass the hydroelectric

[@baileygray404]

I laughed so much at the avocado bit. You're absolutely right and it's why I can't do it either. 😂

[@MrSamdavidgm350]

Wow that pretty cool!

[@ScottSavageKC7WDG]

Nice video

[@Daikael]

Loved the REACTOR SCRAM light.

[@IndianaDipper194]

cool video, and i love the new magnet labels, but one thing that bugged me is some of the labels spell out one and two and some use the number 1 and 2, for common understanding i think it should all be in numbers rather than spelled just in case someone who doesnt know english has to use it for some reason, i know its a fringe theroy but it would also look alot better IMHO. :) love the content, glad your back!

[@hifiandrew]

OMG just noticed the Radiation in the Containment.. level 8 (perfectly normal) above the Reactor Scram. I absolutely love China Syndrome, I've watched wayyyy more times than I care to admit. Well done! Bow down to your geeky godness even more.

[@VariacManiac]

You did an excellent job on the labeling & paint!

[@SeamusJohnsonMusic]

Excellent video as always Chris! Very interesting!

[@mauricechrupek9944]

Fantastic labeling

[@davidgrisez]

It sure looks like that Hydro power plant is very old. I find it interesting how fast a hydro unit can be brought up to speed and synchronized to the line. That is nothing like the steam electric generating stations I used to work in that took about 12 hours to go from a cold start to generating significant amounts of power.

[@FailedSquare]

that worm gear gate lifting mechanism might be the most satisfying thing ive watched all month

[@realfoggy]

Dam that's a lot of water...I see what you did there!

[@douglascalhoun6471]

Fascinating, I always wondered how maintenance was done on a hydroelectric unit.

[@evilsideracing]

Love these long videos you make. Awesome

[@smartazz]

That was awesome 😎

[@stefan6256]

Reactor Scram! I love it

[@hifiandrew]

One above it's even better LOL

[@joeschulz7997]

Awesome video. You need some proper permanent badging on the panel doors. Im surprised to see the operator not wearing a PFD. I love the new upgraded lock....its totally authentic. 👍🏻

[@barlink7495]

Your paint job came out well. Nice video

[@seandonnelly6823]

Love the red on the cabinets it looks decent

[@allenshepard7992]

Yes, we will say "Cut over when the indicator is moving clockwise, fast" Good transfer.

[@LumpyFPV]

HELL YEAH T-BONE

[@TechOne7671]

That was good to see. Give us more detail on the startup and sync of the machine. Cheers

[@mxslick50]

He already has a video detailing startup and sync on this channel.

[@n2nitro444]

Fuck yeah let's get some more long form

[@DrewMarold]

The new labels look great.

[@DirtBikeBoy5ive]

I love it

[@magic.marmot]

Oh man, the sound of that generator spooling up is music.

[@aldenconsolver3428]

h*ll when you were talking about Kale I thought back to how it tasted, it tasted just like being tackled in football and hitting the turf with your mouth open, then you said it tasted just like a yard. Great minds think just alike LOL. Kale is on my menu planning right after I start wandering around the yard just eating whatever I find at random.

[@paleoph6168]

Welcome back!

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

Awesome worm gear drive

[@bdot02]

Ooh, something cool to see!

[@lightingnut]

So you have 2 power plants you take care of? Interesting videos, keep them coming.

[@bentr0n]

Pffft, “REACTOR SCRAM” 😂

[@oddball_the_blue]

And that's pretty cool.

[@Tsiikki]

That was pretty cool!

[@joshuavandepol9045]

Labels look Great! Colour choice is really nice, If it were up to me though I'd go with a more we'll say "period appropriate" font type. Something antique but sexy, like the rest of the place lol

[@christophercangialosi2860]

Can you do a video explaining how much power the US/World would need to generate to power electric vehicles if everyone switched for ICE Vehicles?

[@b43xoit]

Sabine Hossenfelder might address that approximately. Or Thunderf00t might.

[@jessicalawson1417]

Agree 💯 that guacamole tastes like lawn

[@LumpyFPV]

Vinegar on canned spinach?! Fuggn sign me up!

[@rbrtcrowther]

Ahhh finally…. The content I’ve been waiting for… love the hydro videos…. Why does that generator sing so loudly?

[@tsm688]

cogging perhaps? it's got a lotta poles

[@ethant8967]

I would love to see your explanation of why KWh is a bad unit for measuring the usage of power. Thanks.

[@b43xoit]

Because it isn't a joule times a power of 1000. There are 3600s in an hour.

[@stolz_ar]

That's pretty cool.

[@kyleritchie1100]

Yaaay! A long format video!

[@enlamainyokohama]

Yellow mustard on spinach.

[@maxhearld1035]

Oh hell yeah a new video 🤘🏻

[@jakelangevin301]

And here we all are

[@fatman123526]

Wee little baby generator 😂 I'm definitely not fond of the magnetic labels for that application. Too much chance of something stupid happening for me.

[@SeanBZA]

But a temporary marker, while you get a proper one made, and then rivet into position ( none of this glue rubbish, solid metal rivets last a lot longer) it is workable.

[@leandrolaporta2196]

Nice!! you have to do this everyday? that often? nothing like the noise of the genny syncing up with mains, i love that!.

[@mikeybhoutex]

Question: How many times per year... or month... or week... does this maintenance have to be done? Is it a seasonal thing, or is it by some metric seen in the control room? I really appreciate what you're doing here. You're one of the few channels I watch shorts for. Love the long videos when they happen. Thanks for showing us this!

[@Physicsduck]

Thank you! :) I'm glad you're enjoying the videos and I'm working to make more longforms. Given that I'm trying to make 100% scripted content, with planning and preproduction and such, things move a lot slower. Longforms take at least a month to write and produce. This one was an experiment though, just unscripted and off the cuff. If it does well and people like it, I'll try and make more of them. To answer your question, this time of year this happens once a day at every plant. In the autumn it's often twice a shift, sometimes more. We have to keep the leaves clear of the intakes, and as you've seen it's a very manual process.

[@bobperkinson6249]

I guess that traveling screens wasn't in the budget when the place was built. That generator is old as the hills. That even looked like a BJ 30 voltage control unit.

[@fanplant]

you made magnetic poetry

[@Deiphobuzz]

Was waiting for a "floater" comment with the log... what a shame..