Why is it that when the residents of a community are out of power they do not call on the military to provide emergency power, until the power company can get it back on?

 

Hmmm good idea ....but the utility companies won't let them, I would think it would be better use of them instead of removing snow...how long have you been without power? do you have any idea when it will be restored?

 

Part of the reasoning is simply the layout of the nation's electrical grid--the "high-side" voltage varies from area to area, even within the same state. I currently work at a 800 MW combined cycle plant here in Ohio, and our high side voltage is 345KV (345, 000 Volts)--some other areas run between 230KV and 700KV.
As it is distributed down to the residential level, it is stepped down through numerous transformers--the high voltage (230KV and up) is necessary for long distance transmission (think of the voltage as the "pressure" pushing power down the line)--in order to tap into the electrical system at a local level, they would have to do one of two things:
1--have a bunch of different generator units on hand to match the various incoming voltages at local substations
2--have a bunch of small medium voltage (480 V) generators that could be hooked in at numerous locations on the "low side" of the local substations

In short, it would be a logistic nightmare

One thing that actually helps when they are trying to get back on line is for the load to be removed--typically they will disconnect everyone in order to get the plant back up, then start slowly restoring power to the public; this keeps the reactive load on the generators in a happy spot, and keeps them from overheating.

Don't know where you are located, but if you're in an area where they rely on either coal, oil-fired, or nuclear plants, it can take a few days just to get the plant restarted--that may be contributing to your delay. I don't have any experience with those type plants, as I work at a gas turbine powered plant (jet engines--we can be making power within a half hour)

Good luck getting through this mess--hope you get back to normal soon

Jim

 

Jim,

How many IGT power plants are in Ohio? I design tooling for, among other things, IGT turbine airfoils.

Since these engines are not suited for air travel they consist of some massive size airfoils and the tooling is huge, I love designing the IGT stuff as well as aircraft powerplants. Is that a GE engine? Which model?

Randy

 

Not sure how many combustion turbine plants are in Ohio--might have to look into that

We use GE 7FA gas turbines, the exhaust feeding into Nooter/Eriksen HRSG's (Heat Recovery Steam Generator), then the steam is fed into a GE D11 steam turbine

 

Hey jimzdat, my younger Brother just bought a house up Drag Strip Rd. We're originally from Lower Salem and both of us went to Fort Frye. I don't know how old you are, but maybe you can jog my memory. Somewhere up Rt. 7, around the Shell plant was a motocross track that had to be closed down because it was considered "too dangerous" plus there was a fatality there around 1975. It was called Badlands. I raced there I think twice, it had a killer "ski jump". We use to race over in Coolville in a guy's hay field after cutting....complete with rubber-band start. Had you ever heard of Badlands and if so, where in the world was it because I told my Brother I thought it was off of Drag Strip Rd.

 

Well, I have only lived in Ohio for about 2 years, so I have no clue where a lot of stuff is. I DO know where Drag Strip Rd is, simply because I drive past it on the way to work--never driven up it though

We have a few guys here at work that are from this area (most power plant jobs are staffed by people from other parts of the country, but most of the plants are in the midwest--you end up with a varied workforce) I'll see if any of them know where the heck it is/was and PM ya