A power station, also referred to as a power plant or powerhouse and sometimes

generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of

electric power. Most power stations contain one or more generators, a rotating
machine that converts mechanical power into electrical power. The relative motion
between a magnetic field and a conductor creates an electrical current. The energy
source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. Most power stations in the
world burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to generate electricity.
Others use nuclear power, but there is an increasing use of cleaner renewable
sources such as solar, wind, wave and hydroelectric.

AC systems used a wide range of frequencies depending on the type of load;

lighting load using higher frequencies, and traction systems and heavy motor load
systems preferring lower frequencies. The economics of central station generation
improved greatly when unified light and power systems, operating at a common
frequency, were developed. The same generating plant that fed large industrial
loads during the day, could feed commuter railway systems during rush hour and
then serve lighting load in the evening, thus improving the system load factor and
reducing the cost of electrical energy overall. Many exceptions existed, generating
stations were dedicated to power or light by the choice of frequency, and rotating
frequency changers and rotating converters were particularly common to feed
electric railway systems from the general lighting and power network.

Thermal power stations:

In thermal power stations, mechanical power is produced by a heat engine that
transforms thermal energy, often from combustion of a fuel, into rotational energy.
Most thermal power stations produce steam, so they are sometimes called steam
power stations. Not all thermal energy can be transformed into mechanical power,
according to the second law of thermodynamics; therefore, there is always heat lost
to the environment. If this loss is employed as useful heat, for industrial processes
or district heating, the power plant is referred to as a cogeneration power plant or
CHP (combined heat-and-power) plant. In countries where district heating is
common, there are dedicated heat plants called heat-only boiler stations. An
important class of power stations in the Middle East uses by-product heat for the
desalination of water. The efficiency of a thermal power cycle is limited by the
maximum working fluid temperature produced. The efficiency is not directly a
function of the fuel used. For the same steam conditions, coal-, nuclear- and gas
power plants all have the same theoretical efficiency. Overall, if a system is on
constantly (base load) it will be more efficient than one that is used intermittently
(peak load). Steam turbines generally operate at higher efficiency when operated at
full capacity. Besides use of reject heat for process or district heating, one way to
improve overall efficiency of a power plant is to combine two different
thermodynamic cycles in a combined cycle plant. Most commonly, exhaust gases
from a gas turbine are used to generate steam for a boiler and a steam turbine. The
combination of a "top" cycle and a "bottom" cycle produces higher overall
efficiency than either cycle can attain alone.

By heat source:
Fossil-fuel power stations may also use a steam turbine generator or in the case of
natural gas-fired plants may use a combustion turbine. A coal-fired power station
produces heat by burning coal in a steam boiler. The steam drives a steam turbine
and generator that then produces electricity. The waste products of combustion
include ash, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Some of the
gases can be removed from the waste stream to reduce pollution. Nuclear power
plants use the heat generated in a nuclear reactor's core (by the fission process) to
create steam which then operates a steam turbine and generator. About 20 percent
of electric generation in the USA is produced by nuclear power plants. Geothermal
power plants use steam extracted from hot underground rocks. These rocks are
heated by the decay of radioactive material in the Earth's crust. Biomass-fuelled
power plants may be fuelled by waste from sugar cane, municipal solid waste,
landfill methane, or other forms of biomass. In integrated steel mills, blast furnace
exhaust gas is a low-cost, although low-energy-density, fuel. Waste heat from
industrial processes is occasionally concentrated enough to use for power
generation, usually in a steam boiler and turbine. Solar thermal electric plants use
sunlight to boil water and produce steam which turns the generator.

By prime mover:

Steam turbine plants use the dynamic pressure generated by expanding steam to
turn the blades of a turbine. Almost all large non-hydro plants use this system.
About 90 percent of all electric power produced in the world is through use of
steam turbines.

Gas turbine plants use the dynamic pressure from flowing gases (air and
combustion products) to directly operate the turbine. Natural-gas fuelled (and oil
fueled) combustion turbine plants can start rapidly and so are used to supply
"peak" energy during periods of high demand, though at higher cost than base-
loaded plants. These may be comparatively small units, and sometimes completely
unmanned, being remotely operated. This type was pioneered by the UK, Prince
town being the world's first, commissioned in 1959.

Combined cycle plants have both a gas turbine fired by natural gas, and a steam
boiler and steam turbine which use the hot exhaust gas from the gas turbine to
produce electricity. This greatly increases the overall efficiency of the plant, and
many new base load power plants are combined cycle plants fired by natural gas.

Internal combustion reciprocating engines are used to provide power for isolated
communities and are frequently used for small cogeneration plants. Hospitals,
office buildings, industrial plants, and other critical facilities also use them to
provide backup power in case of a power outage. These are usually fuelled by
diesel oil, heavy oil, natural gas, and landfill gas.

Micro turbines, Sterling engine and internal combustion reciprocating engines are
low-cost solutions for using opportunity fuels, such as landfill gas, digester gas
from water treatment plants and waste gas from oil production.

By duty:

Power plants that can be dispatched (scheduled) to provide energy to a system

include:

Base load power plants run nearly continually to provide that component of system
load that doesn't vary during a day or week. Base load plants can be highly
optimized for low fuel cost, but may not start or stop quickly during changes in
system load. Examples of base-load plants would include large modern coal-fired
and nuclear generating stations, or hydro plants with a predictable supply of water.

Peaking power plants meet the daily peak load, which may only be for one or two
hours each day. While their incremental operating cost is always higher than base
load plants, they are required to ensure security of the system during load peaks.
Peaking plants include simple cycle gas turbines and sometimes reciprocating
internal combustion engines, which can be started up rapidly when system peaks
are predicted. Hydroelectric plants may also be designed for peaking use.

Load following power plants can economically follow the variations in the daily
and weekly load, at lower cost than peaking plants and with more flexibility than
base load plants.

Non-dispatch able plants include such sources as wind and solar energy; while
their long-term contribution to system energy supply is predictable, on a short-term
(daily or hourly) base their energy must be used as available since generation
cannot be deferred. Contractual arrangements ("take or pay") with independent
power producers or system interconnections to other networks may be effectively
non-dispatch able

Cooling towers:

All thermal power plants produce waste heat energy as a byproduct of the useful
electrical energy produced. The amount of waste heat energy equals or exceeds the
amount of energy converted into useful electricity. Gas-fired power plants can
achieve as much as 65 percent conversion efficiency, while coal and oil plants
achieve around 30 to 49 percent. The waste heat produces a temperature rise in the
atmosphere, which is small compared to that produced by greenhouse-gas
emissions from the same power plant. Natural draft wet cooling towers at many
nuclear power plants and large fossil fuel-fired power plants use large hyperboloid
chimney-like structures (as seen in the image at the right) that release the waste
heat to the ambient atmosphere by the evaporation of water.

However, the mechanical induced-draft or forced-draft wet cooling towers in many

large thermal power plants, nuclear power plants, fossil-fired power plants,
petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, geothermal, biomass and waste-to-
energy plants use fans to provide air movement upward through down coming
water, and are not hyperboloid chimney-like structures. The induced or forced-
draft cooling towers are typically rectangular, box-like structures filled with a
material that enhances the mixing of the up flowing air and the down flowing
water. In areas with restricted water use, a dry cooling tower or directly air-cooled
radiators may be necessary, since the cost or environmental consequences of
obtaining make-up water for evaporative cooling would be prohibitive. These
coolers have lower efficiency and higher energy consumption to drive fans,
compared to a typical wet, evaporative cooling tower.

Once-through cooling systems:

Electric companies often prefer to use cooling water from the ocean, a lake, or a
river, or a cooling pond, instead of a cooling tower. This single pass or once-
through cooling system can save the cost of a cooling tower and may have lower
energy costs for pumping cooling water through the plant's heat exchangers.
However, the waste heat can cause thermal pollution as the water is discharged.
Power plants using natural bodies of water for cooling are designed with
mechanisms such as fish screens, to limit intake of organisms into the cooling
machinery. These screens are only partially effective and as a result billions of fish
and other aquatic organisms are killed by power plants each year. For example, the
cooling system at the Indian Point Energy Center in New York kills over a billion
fish eggs and larvae annually. A further environmental impact is that aquatic
organisms which adapt to the warmer discharge water may be injured if the plant
shuts down in cold weather. Water consumption by power stations is a developing
issue. In recent years, recycled wastewater, or grey water, has been used in cooling
towers. The Calpine Riverside and the Calpine Fox power stations in Wisconsin as
well as the Calpine Mankato power station in Minnesota are among these facilities.

NTPC Ramagundam, a part of National Thermal Power Corporation, is a 2600

MW Power station situated at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district in the Indian
state of Telangana, India. It is the current largest power station in South India. It is
the first ISO 14001 certified "Super Thermal Power Station" in India.

The TG Hall :

The TG Hall or the Turbo-Generator hall or the Turbine-Generator Hall is the hall
or space where the turbine-generator sets are present. NTPC Ltd., Ramagundam
has two TG Halls one for STAGE-I and the other common for STAGE-II and
STAGE-III. These TG halls are equipped with heavy overhead cranes that assist in
transportation of material within the TG hall. These cranes find their use greatly
during overhauls.
Unit-wise power generation:

STAGE 1 (3×200 MW)

This stage consists of three units(Unit-1, Unit-2, Unit-3) each with a generation
capacity of 200 MW. The turbines for these three units were manufactured by The
Ansaldo Energia Ltd. The construction began in the late 1970s and these units
have performed well over a long period setting many records regarding
maintenance and generation over the other two stages. BUT stage (1,2,3) cwp
motors are manufactured by BHEL. and all motors are manufactured by Ansaldo.
S-I coal mill motors are 240 KW and PA fans are 400 KW. All equipment is very
important in plant.

STAGE 2 (3×500 MW)

This stage again consists of three units (Unit-4, Unit-5, Unit-6) each with a
generation capacity of 500MW. The turbines for these three units were
manufactured by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL)

Stage 3 (1×500 MW)

This stage comprises only one unit (Unit - 7). This is a first of its kind in South
India being a computer operated unit. A wide disparity may be seen between the
control rooms of the other two stages and this computerised unit. To this day,
many Power plant engineers train in this unit to upgrade themselves to this new
mode of operation. This unit also has the tallest chimney in India (height: 275
meters).

Once in two years, these units are stopped and overhauled, one unit at a time. The
overhauls are usually taken up during the months June to September as the
monsoons activate hydel power generation which substitute the power generation
lost due to the overhaul of the unit. The same practice is followed all through the
country. The overhauls usually take 15 to 20 days per unit provided there is no
major repair involved. Major repairs include turbine casing, turbine rotor damage
and other damages that require transporting the equipment to another location
(usually the manufacturer). The overhauls are the dissipaters of the annual PLF of
any power plant.