

A power station (also referred to as generating station or power plant) is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power.
Power plant is also used to refer to the engine in ships, aircraft and other large vehicles. Some prefer to use the term energy center because it more accurately describes what the plants do, which is the conversion of other forms of energy, like
chemical energy,
gravitational potential energy or heat energy into electrical energy. However, power plant is the most common term in the U.S., while elsewhere power station and power plant are both widely used, power station prevailing in many
Commonwealth countries and especially in the
United Kingdom.
At the center of nearly all power stations is a
generator, a rotating machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy by creating relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor. The energy source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. It depends chiefly on what fuels are easily available and the types of technology that the power company has access to.
Thermal power stations
Rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in power station
In thermal power stations, mechanical power is produced by a
heat engine, which transforms
thermal energy, often from
combustion of a
fuel, into rotational energy. Most thermal power stations produce steam, and these are sometimes called steam power stations. About 80% of all electric power is generated by use of steam turbines.[
citation needed] Not all thermal energy can be transformed to 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 byproduct heat for
desalination of water.
Thermal power plants are classified by the type of fuel and the type of prime mover installed.
By fuel
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.
Gas turbine plants use the dynamic pressure from flowing gases to directly operate the turbine. Natural-gas fuelled 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.
Combined cycle plants have both a gas turbine fired by natural gas, and a steam boiler and steam turbine which use the exhaust gas from the gas turbine to produce electricity. This greatly increases the overall efficiency of the plant, and many new baseload 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.
Microturbines,
Stirling 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.
Cooling towers
All thermal power plants produce waste heat as a byproduct of the useful electrical energy produced. Natural draft wet
cooling towers at nuclear power plants and at some large thermal power plants are large hyperbolic
chimney-like structures that release the waste heat to the ambient atmosphere by the evaporation of water
A Marley mechanical induced-draft cooling tower
However, the mechanical induced-draft or forced-draft wet cooling towers (as seen in the image to the right) in many large thermal power plants,
petroleum refineries,
petrochemical plants,
geothermal,
biomass and
waste to energy plants use
fans to provide air movement upward through downcoming water and are not hyperbolic chimney-like structures. The induced or forced-draft cooling towers are rectangular, box-like structures filled with a material that enhances the contacting of the upflowing air and the downflowing water.
In desert areas a dry cooling tower or radiator may be necessary, since the cost of make-up water for evaporative cooling would be prohibitive. These have lower efficiency and higher energy consumption in fans than a wet, evaporative cooling tower.
Where economically and environmentally possible, electric companies prefer to use cooling water from the ocean, or a lake or river, or a cooling pond, instead of a cooling tower. This type of cooling 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 the temperature of the water to rise detectably. Power plants using natural bodies of water for cooling must be designed to prevent intake of organisms into the cooling cycle. A further environmental impact would be organisms that adapt to the warmer plant water and may be injured if the plant shuts down in cold weather.
In recent years, recycled wastewater, or grey water, has been used in cooling towers
A
pumped storage hydroelectric power plant is a net consumer of energy but decreases the price of electricity. Water is pumped to a high reservoir during the night when the demand, and price, for electricity is low. During hours of peak demand, when the price of electricity is high, the stored water is released to produce electric power. Some pumped storage plants are actually not net consumers of electricity because they release some of the water from the lower reservoir downstream, either continuously or in bursts.
Solar
A solar
photovoltaic power plant converts sunlight into electrical energy, which may need
conversion to
alternating current for transmission to users. This type of plant does not use rotating machines for energy conversion. Solar thermal electric plants are another type of solar power plant. They direct sunlight using either parabolic troughs or
heliostats. Parabolic troughs direct sunlight onto a pipe containing a heat transfer fluid, such as oil, which is then used to boil water, which turns the generator. The central tower type of power plant uses hundreds or thousands of mirrors, depending on size, to direct sunlight onto a receiver on top of a tower. Again, the heat is used to produce steam to turn turbines. There is yet another type of solar thermal electric plant. The sunlight strikes the bottom of the pond, warming the lowest layer which is prevented from rising by a salt gradient. A
Rankine cycle engine exploits the temperature difference in the layers to produce electricity. Not many solar thermal electric plants have been built. Most of them can be found in the Mojave Desert, although
Sandia National Laboratory, Israel and Spain have also built a few plants.
Wind
Wind turbines can be used to generate electricity in areas with strong, steady winds. Many different designs have been used in the past, but almost all modern turbines being produced today use a three-bladed, upwind design. Grid-connected wind turbines now being built are much larger than the units installed during the 1970s, and so produce power more cheaply and reliably than earlier models. With larger turbines (on the order of one megawatt), the blades move more slowly than older, smaller, units, which makes them less visually distracting and safer for airborne animals. However, the old turbines can still be seen at some wind farms, particularly at
Altamont Pass and
Tehachapi Pass.
Operations
The power station operator has several duties in the electrical generating facility. Operators are responsible for the safety of the work crews that frequently do repairs on the mechanical and electrical equipment. They maintain the equipment with periodic
inspections and logs temperatures, pressures and other important information on regular intervals. Operators are responsible for starting and stopping the
generators depending on need. They are able to synchronize and adjust the voltage output of the added generation with the running electrical system without upsetting the system. They must know the electrical and mechanical systems in order to
troubleshoot problems in the facility and add to the reliability of the facility. Operators must be able to respond to an emergency and know the procedures in place to deal with it.