Speaking of portable backup generators

[Open Neutral]

In 1929, Tacoma WA was suffering a drought, and oops, the city depended on hydro power.

The solution? The Navy sent the USS Lexington, the first US aircraft carrier. It was turbo-electric drive & had 16 steam-driven generators with a total output of ~150MW. They ran them 45 rpm faster than normal to get 60 Hz, and had six shortside transformers wired wye-delta to feed the city grid at 50KV. The ship to...

shore leads consist of twelve 750,000 circular mill cables insulated with varnished cambric and asbestos for 5,000 volt service. The banks of transformers have a combined rating of 20,000 K.V.A.

They synced up via a synchroscope & 3-lights.

Over the month they were they docked, they supplied Tacoma 4.25E6 KWH.

I see no mention of how much bunker the ship burned over that period.

How's THAT for a backup generator? Lower Manhattan could make use of it today.

 

[jumper]

Cool. :thumbsup: Go Navy!!!!!!

Imagine how much power a modern nuke boat/ship could provide.

 

[masterinbama]

I know they used one to provide water and power in Haiti, and I seem to remember they used one in New Orleans too.

 

[buzzbar]

Yeah, the ship provided power for 30 days! Here's a picture of the cables:

 

[John120/240]

That is interesting, however they could do the same thing with locomotives. On a smaller

scale of course.

 

[Open Neutral]

That is interesting, however they could do the same thing with locomotives. On a smaller scale of course.

An AC locomotive is ~3-5MW, so you'd need to parallel a few of them to equal the Lex....