generator as primary power source
- Thread starter anbm
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zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Up the line, we all use generators as the primary power source. Do you mean primary/co-gen or completely off-grid? Some Sierra ski resorts are off-grid and have multi-MW of local generation.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
Some road construction projects use portable generators to power things such as concrete plants. I had one customer that the poco said they would charge them $25,000 to run a three phase line 500' off the main line for a large portable concrete plant. The customer said they could easily bring in one of their generators and run the plant, and said no thanks. This was a year long project, and they would be using gobs of electricity. Once the poco found that out they called back, and said they would do it for free, instead of losing all of that revenue.
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
Using generators was not uncommon in paper and pulp mills, there are still a few active ones in this area.
rcwilson
Senior Member
- Location
- Redmond, WA
Oil refineries and petro-chemical facilities use generators as primary power source with the utility as a backup or auxiliary source. Some processes give off excess heat and some require a lot of steam. With good engineering excess heat can be used to run a steam turbine for electrical power or the waste heat from gas turbine generators can supply steam to the process. The total system is more efficient than running a utility generator dumping heat to a cooling tower and needing a gas fired boiler at the refinery to provide steam.
Until a few years ago, many of the refinery complexes in Texas generated their own power.
I just worked on a 120 MW power plant that was the main source of power for a metal refinery. The utility feed was only 9 MW, enough to keep the lights on during an outage.
Until a few years ago, many of the refinery complexes in Texas generated their own power.
I just worked on a 120 MW power plant that was the main source of power for a metal refinery. The utility feed was only 9 MW, enough to keep the lights on during an outage.
broadgage
Senior Member
- Location
- London, England
Here in the UK, some large industrial plants generate their own electricity, often because this is more economic if a lot of process heat or steam is needed.
Most have a grid supply as a secondary or backup source, sometimes to provide a limited supply for lighting and tools during plant shutdowns.
Isolated premises without a grid connection are often reliant on a generator, it is prudent to have 2 generators in such cases.
I have installed a system recently, 8KW diesel generator with engine cooling water used for underfloor heating.
The engine is run as needed, typicly for 4 hours a day in winter, and a few hours a week in summer. A battery bank and inverter supplies low power loads when the engine is not running.
Cooking appliances, clothes washer, large power tools and the like normaly require that the generator be run.
Most have a grid supply as a secondary or backup source, sometimes to provide a limited supply for lighting and tools during plant shutdowns.
Isolated premises without a grid connection are often reliant on a generator, it is prudent to have 2 generators in such cases.
I have installed a system recently, 8KW diesel generator with engine cooling water used for underfloor heating.
The engine is run as needed, typicly for 4 hours a day in winter, and a few hours a week in summer. A battery bank and inverter supplies low power loads when the engine is not running.
Cooking appliances, clothes washer, large power tools and the like normaly require that the generator be run.
mayanees
Senior Member
- Location
- Westminster, MD
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer and Master Electrician
Data Centers
Data Centers
Large Data Centers tend to refer to Generation as the primary source with Utility power as backup, since they have no control over utility power. Utility power is the normal source, but if a storm rolls in, they will switch over to generation well in advance of the event.
John M
Data Centers
Large Data Centers tend to refer to Generation as the primary source with Utility power as backup, since they have no control over utility power. Utility power is the normal source, but if a storm rolls in, they will switch over to generation well in advance of the event.
John M
ron
Senior Member
- Location
- New York, 40.7514,-73.9925
John,
Great point as Uptime Tier 3 and 4 requires that, although now with EPA emissions requirements for non standby emergency generators going bananas (urea tanks, particulate traps, etc), many are only running during the actual outage, so they don't have to comply with the EPA regs for running >100 hours during non outage periods.
maghazadeh
Senior Member
- Location
- Campbell CA
I have been wondering what powers the oil wells pumps that you see all over in texas, Oklahoma, and etc.... Is it some sort of back pressure system or do they run off of a Elect. generator?
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
HIPAS Observatory in AK uses generators to power their experiments.
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/plasmalab/indexhright.html
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/plasmalab/indexhright.html
Etope
Member
- Location
- Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
Most of the in the natural gas industry we try and use utility power for most of our sites.. Well sites.. Booster stations.. etc. However some of our sites are in remote areas and it is not economically feasible to have a utility construct a line to provide power to these areas. In those cases we will have our own power generation that will be able to provide power to all the sites in the remote areas. The oil industry works in a similar fashion
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