I worked for 34 years in Los Angeles DWP electricity generating stations that in the early years of my career burned natural gas and fuel oil for fuels to make steam in the boilers. In the later years of my career fuel oil burning was discontinued and only natural gas was burned. I worked as an operator, operating the large boilers and turbine generators. The generating stations I worked at were built in the 1950s and had a fully analog, primarily pneumatic based control system built by Bailey Meter Company. These generating stations have repowered with new combined cycle units that have computer based control system. With the old control systems the control room was filled with gauges, meters, knobs, switches, charts and bailey meter controls. Now new control rooms have a number of computer terminals and computer screens. One thing I did notice in this video was boiler inspection doors that were opened and people looking at the fire in the furnace. This tells me that these are balanced draft boilers that have both forced draft fans and induced draft fans and that the air pressure in the furnace is slightly below atmospheric pressure so that outside air flows through the inspection door and into the furnace. The other type of furnace is a pressurized furnace where if a hole occurs in the boiler casing, fire comes out of the furnace. As an operator I preferred balanced draft furnaces to pressurized furnaces.
Thanks for sharing - that was really interesting. Great that the operator was able to host visitors. I can imagine that takes some doing in the modern security climate. I visited a couple of (UK) nuclear power plants back in the 80s - sadly I don`t think my kids will get the chance these days.
Thanks for your interest. You are fortunate that you were able to see nuclear reactors. That might be an absolute no-go now. This happened to be my lucky day. I had told my hosts for years I wanted to visit this one. They informed me in a timely fashion and made it possibly for me. Just my luck. Only 50 or 60 people were admitted that day with advance passes. It is once a year thing and doesn't happen each year. Billy the kid was awesome. People in Wyoming are simple, tough and hard working. I am not from Wyoming, just FYI.
Yes. The "pants legs" below the silos are a dead giveaway. Those were feeders to the pulverizers or "mills on the next floor down (first floor in our plant). They are ball mills in our plant...
I wouldn’t know the answer. Way above my pay grade. I was a mere spectator there. Although I am a man of science I didn’t know this terminology. I had to look it up. I guess you are taking about a state where gases conduct electricity. Right? Tell me more if you know about it.
@@WoodyWyoming the plasma ignition for coal fired boiler means that the pulverized coal can be ignited by plasma in a special plasma burner. So there is no oil consumption during boiler ignition process. Actually i am majored in this technology. My Email is chinalee8899@gmail.com. If you are interested pease send me email I will reply you the profile of it. Thank you
@@getjacked1First thing is Loss of Power to the Grid. Personnel will be rapidly attempting safety measures and determining the cause, doing damage control, etc... worst case scenario is would be and explosion, but most times, it is finding the fault & fixing... and start.
I'm okay with solar, wind and such, but what I have a problem with is our government propping them up with tax payers money. Also you might wanna look into clean coal technology, you will be surprised of the advancements made. I worked just shy of 40 years at a coal fired plant that produced 2900 megawatts (a megawatt is a million watts) of power, that is rain, shine, heat of summer, cold of winter, cloudy days, and days with no wind. figure how many windmills, and solar panels it will take to replace that baby.
Pretty neat, I wasban ACO at a fossil fuel (crude #6 oil) on Long Island the Northport Power station. We had 4 385 MW units, stacks 600' tall and boilers just over 400' they were designed to run coal and oil but ran oil only until the mid 90's then started the slow conversion to gas and/or oil. Gas was sooo nice. No smoke conditions, no carbo ash lines plugging up and minimized problems where we didn't need as many hopper washes or fan washes, insulators up in the precip building (the morgue), fuel oil guns plugging up, fuel oil strainers etc.. Our ignighters and start up was #2 oil wich is now gas. We used to wave flags on broomsticks to find steam leaks under the turbine since it was superheated steam at 1005°F at 3000lbs. of pressure. I miss the job but unfortunately I became sick from the exposures and now I am fighting leukemia. Our plant was built in a nice area so the boiler was a completely enclosed building so EVERYTHING was inside and we also burned waste oil trucked in and super tankers were allowed 10% waste in oil shipments of chemicals or whatever. Gas is soo much nicer and I would like to see modern nuclear but these politician's are pushing renewable energy but we cannot rely on wind and solar, we will still need fossile fuel plants for load. What is destroying the plant I was in is they use it as a peak load plant now when it was designed to be a base load plant and drop load at night for condenser cleaning or maintenance but now they sit all four units at 385mw and at night bring them down to 100mw. Thank you for the video.
Thanks for your interest and comments Erik. You have worked in this environment and seen the real deal. I just went there as a tourist and was fascinated how it all worked. Nuclear power plant is probably the only long term solution to our ever so expanding energy needs. I know everyone spooked out after that Fukushima meltdown. Everything comes at a price. Fossil fuels have a lot more BTU packed in them which is why we have to depend upon them. I know there is a lot of push for clean energy. Not only it is unreliable the output is quite low other than hydroelectric. I have 70 solar panels (190 kWh each) that produce up to 12100 kWh during midday sun in June (less that full production due to dust on panels, pollution and suboptimal sun). But the moment I plug in my Tesla all that power production goes to zero. It doesn’t go into negative but it becomes zero. The point I am making is in order to feed one Tesla, you need 70 panels to produce a speed of 60 mph. Compare that with my 1994 Nissan Sentra does that does the same on just one gallon of gas. One has to look at the numbers. One gallon of gas on one side equals 70 panels on the other. Gas and coal have a lot more BTUs packed into them than solar. We are not even talking about cost. How can an average person ever afford it. Sorry about your leukemia. I wish you well. Some of those have good treatment options, that is if you have the “better” kind, if you will.
Must be some VERY VIP visitors... no way those belt lines were that clean on a normal day
I worked for 34 years in Los Angeles DWP electricity generating stations that in the early years of my career burned natural gas and fuel oil for fuels to make steam in the boilers. In the later years of my career fuel oil burning was discontinued and only natural gas was burned. I worked as an operator, operating the large boilers and turbine generators. The generating stations I worked at were built in the 1950s and had a fully analog, primarily pneumatic based control system built by Bailey Meter Company. These generating stations have repowered with new combined cycle units that have computer based control system. With the old control systems the control room was filled with gauges, meters, knobs, switches, charts and bailey meter controls. Now new control rooms have a number of computer terminals and computer screens. One thing I did notice in this video was boiler inspection doors that were opened and people looking at the fire in the furnace. This tells me that these are balanced draft boilers that have both forced draft fans and induced draft fans and that the air pressure in the furnace is slightly below atmospheric pressure so that outside air flows through the inspection door and into the furnace. The other type of furnace is a pressurized furnace where if a hole occurs in the boiler casing, fire comes out of the furnace. As an operator I preferred balanced draft furnaces to pressurized furnaces.
Thanks for sharing - that was really interesting. Great that the operator was able to host visitors. I can imagine that takes some doing in the modern security climate. I visited a couple of (UK) nuclear power plants back in the 80s - sadly I don`t think my kids will get the chance these days.
Thanks for your interest. You are fortunate that you were able to see nuclear reactors. That might be an absolute no-go now. This happened to be my lucky day. I had told my hosts for years I wanted to visit this one. They informed me in a timely fashion and made it possibly for me. Just my luck. Only 50 or 60 people were admitted that day with advance passes. It is once a year thing and doesn't happen each year. Billy the kid was awesome. People in Wyoming are simple, tough and hard working. I am not from Wyoming, just FYI.
Stay safe guys new friend here
12:28 gravimetric coal feeders, NOT pulverizers. These feed coal into the pulverizers from the overhead bunkers.
Nice. Thanks for the input. Always learning new stuff.
Yes. The "pants legs" below the silos are a dead giveaway. Those were feeders to the pulverizers or "mills on the next floor down (first floor in our plant). They are ball mills in our plant...
Has this boiler applied plasma ignition? It can save igniting oil greatly and realize fuel oil free.
I wouldn’t know the answer. Way above my pay grade. I was a mere spectator there. Although I am a man of science I didn’t know this terminology. I had to look it up. I guess you are taking about a state where gases conduct electricity. Right? Tell me more if you know about it.
@@WoodyWyoming the plasma ignition for coal fired boiler means that the pulverized coal can be ignited by plasma in a special plasma burner. So there is no oil consumption during boiler ignition process. Actually i am majored in this technology. My Email is chinalee8899@gmail.com. If you are interested pease send me email I will reply you the profile of it. Thank you
That is strange. I hear it loud and clear. Not the best quality audio in noisy environment, but the audio is definitely there.
I can hear it too. the speech is surprisingly audible considering how deafening the noise is in those places.
This is awesome i always wanted to know what happens after we Uncover Coal Dig it and ship it. I work at Narm
NARM IN WYOMING
If they could just experience the thrill when that baby trips offline
What happens?
@@getjacked1First thing is Loss of Power to the Grid. Personnel will be rapidly attempting safety measures and determining the cause, doing damage control, etc... worst case scenario is would be and explosion, but most times, it is finding the fault & fixing... and start.
PRB coal?
7:07 Bring your pets in.... send your Mechanics out...
Man going out in that wind without hard hat tethers is crazy let alone letting unfamiliar people go around running conveyor belts
Can't hear a dam thing.
i worked in plant similar to this one for 33 yrs - still cant hear a thing
north korea saved this
Why bother?
So much horrible coal pollution for kids and for elders. We need to go solar, wind, battery.
And which one of those do you use?
What a joke!!! IF wind and solar was so cheap, why didn't the utilities use year's ago...
I'm okay with solar, wind and such, but what I have a problem with is our government propping them up with tax payers money. Also you might wanna look into clean coal technology, you will be surprised of the advancements made. I worked just shy of 40 years at a coal fired plant that produced 2900 megawatts (a megawatt is a million watts) of power, that is rain, shine, heat of summer, cold of winter, cloudy days, and days with no wind. figure how many windmills, and solar panels it will take to replace that baby.
Nuclear Fission???
toxic, dirty coal
Pretty neat, I wasban ACO at a fossil fuel (crude #6 oil) on Long Island the Northport Power station. We had 4 385 MW units, stacks 600' tall and boilers just over 400' they were designed to run coal and oil but ran oil only until the mid 90's then started the slow conversion to gas and/or oil. Gas was sooo nice. No smoke conditions, no carbo ash lines plugging up and minimized problems where we didn't need as many hopper washes or fan washes, insulators up in the precip building (the morgue), fuel oil guns plugging up, fuel oil strainers etc.. Our ignighters and start up was #2 oil wich is now gas. We used to wave flags on broomsticks to find steam leaks under the turbine since it was superheated steam at 1005°F at 3000lbs. of pressure. I miss the job but unfortunately I became sick from the exposures and now I am fighting leukemia. Our plant was built in a nice area so the boiler was a completely enclosed building so EVERYTHING was inside and we also burned waste oil trucked in and super tankers were allowed 10% waste in oil shipments of chemicals or whatever. Gas is soo much nicer and I would like to see modern nuclear but these politician's are pushing renewable energy but we cannot rely on wind and solar, we will still need fossile fuel plants for load. What is destroying the plant I was in is they use it as a peak load plant now when it was designed to be a base load plant and drop load at night for condenser cleaning or maintenance but now they sit all four units at 385mw and at night bring them down to 100mw. Thank you for the video.
Thanks for your interest and comments Erik. You have worked in this environment and seen the real deal. I just went there as a tourist and was fascinated how it all worked.
Nuclear power plant is probably the only long term solution to our ever so expanding energy needs. I know everyone spooked out after that Fukushima meltdown. Everything comes at a price. Fossil fuels have a lot more BTU packed in them which is why we have to depend upon them.
I know there is a lot of push for clean energy. Not only it is unreliable the output is quite low other than hydroelectric. I have 70 solar panels (190 kWh each) that produce up to 12100 kWh during midday sun in June (less that full production due to dust on panels, pollution and suboptimal sun). But the moment I plug in my Tesla all that power production goes to zero. It doesn’t go into negative but it becomes zero.
The point I am making is in order to feed one Tesla, you need 70 panels to produce a speed of 60 mph. Compare that with my 1994 Nissan Sentra does that does the same on just one gallon of gas.
One has to look at the numbers. One gallon of gas on one side equals 70 panels on the other. Gas and coal have a lot more BTUs packed into them than solar. We are not even talking about cost. How can an average person ever afford it.
Sorry about your leukemia. I wish you well. Some of those have good treatment options, that is if you have the “better” kind, if you will.