Generator Blog

A generator is a machine which is designed to generate AC electricity. Generators are used by companies for getting power to job sites where power may not be available and for homeowners to provide backup electricity in case of an extended power outage. Generators come in a variety of different sizes and designs. Picking the right one is an important step towards ensuring that your electrical needs are meet if the power goes out.

Standby Generators

Standby generators are larger generators which are designed specifically for the purpose of powering most or the entire house during an extended power outage. Most standby generators use a small car engine to operate the generator. Standby generators can be found in a variety of different sizes. The size is rated by the number of KW the generator can produce. Most home standby generators range between 20KW and 60KW. Industrial standby generators are significantly larger. These produce anywhere between 100KW and 1MW or mega watt. A megawatt is equal to 1000KW.

Fuel Sources for Standby Generators

Home standby generators are powered by either propane or natural gas. In most states it’s illegal to operate a gas or diesel powered stand by generator in a residential zone. Industrial standby generators are almost always powered by diesel.

Portable Generators

Any generator which is on wheels or designed to be moved is classified as a portable generator. Most portable generators are relatively small in size. These range between 1KW and 5KW. They are primarily used for providing power to tools in areas where power is not available. Larger portable units range between 5KW and 15KW. These can be used in the field as well but they are commonly used by homeowners to power small portions of their home if the power is out for an extended period of time.

Fuel Sources for Portable Generators

Nearly all portable generators run on standard gasoline. Some run on propane supplied by a small propane tank but these are rare.

Maintaining a Generator

Generators are all engine driven. Most portable models utilize engines that are similar in style to a lawnmower engine. Many of the home standby variety use a car engine. This means that generators need similar maintenance to a car.

Change Oil: The oil should be changed on a generator periodically. For models without an oil filter the oil should be changed every 50 hours or once a year. For models which do have an oil filter every 250 hours or once a year is recommended.

Air Filter: The air filter should be visually inspected every time the oil is replaced. If it appears dirty then it should be replaced with a new air filter.

Exercise: Generators should be run for one hour once a month. This keeps the engine running properly. This will also prevent the battery from wearing out if it is a model with a battery.

Inspect: Inspect the generator with every oil change. Look at the hoses and any belts. If you see any cracks or other signs of dry rot they should be replaced.

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Power Group has been awarded a contract to design, supply and erect a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) by the Spanish company, REPSOL PETROLEO S.A. The HRSG and auxiliary equipment will be integrated in a cogeneration plant being built at the REPSOL Cartagena Refinery in Murcia, Spain. Foster Wheeler will also provide start-up supervision services.

Foster Wheeler has received a full notice to proceed on this contract.

The HRSG will be coupled with a General Electric PG-6581 gas turbine and recover heat from the gas discharge stream, producing high pressure and medium pressure steam for use in refinery processes and electricity generation at the Cartagena facility. The unit will be equipped with a bypass stack and diverter, as well as post-firing and fresh air capability, for continuous operation even after a combustion turbine trip.

“This boiler is the seventh HRSG awarded to Foster Wheeler by REPSOL, a true testimony that Foster Wheeler meets the high degree of design and quality standards demanded by REPSOL,” said Eric Svendsen, chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Energia, S.L. in Madrid.

Foster Wheeler AG is a global engineering and construction contractor and power equipment supplier delivering technically advanced, reliable facilities and equipment.The company’s Global Engineering and Construction Group designs and constructs leading-edge processing facilities for the upstream oil and gas, LNG and gas-to-liquids, refining, chemicals and petrochemicals, power, environmental, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare industries.

The ring is designed for OEM installation or easy up-tower retrofit.

Electro Static’s shaft grounding ring prevents damage by channeling harmful shaft currents away from bearings.

Mechanic Falls, ME – By safely channeling harmful shaft currents away from bearings to ground, Electro Static Technology’s new AEGIS WTG wind turbine grounding ring prevents bearing damage that could otherwise cause generator failure, unplanned downtime, costly repairs, and lost revenues.

Maintenance-free, effective at any RPM, and available for any size wind turbine generator, the ring is designed for OEM installation or easy up-tower retrofit.

High-frequency currents induced on the shafts of wind turbine generators can reach levels of 60 amps and 1200 volts or greater.
If not diverted, these currents will discharge through the generator’s bearings, causing severe electrical damage that results in bearing failure and catastrophic turbine failure, sometimes in as little as six months or less.

The AEGIS WTG’s patented conductive microfiber technology effectively steers these currents away from the bearings and safely to ground.

The WTG is engineered to safely divert up to 120 amps of continuous shaft current at frequencies as high as 13.5 MHz and discharge up to 3000 volts (peak). Ideal for use as part of a preventive maintenance program to protect against premature bearing failures, it can be installed whenever bearings are replaced.

Living near B.C. Place has become a big pain in the ears for Ray and Lesley Appel. They used to enjoy living in their downtown apartment, but that was before three huge gas-powered generators appeared outside the downtown stadium that is the site for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics Feb. 12.

One of the huge, noisy machines began running all night Friday, said Ray Appel.

“They started going 24/7,” he said Sunday. “It’s really, really loud. We have to keep our windows and doors closed. I have to wear earplugs at night. It’s just a loud, constant hum in the background.”

Appel, who lives about a block from the southwest corner of the stadium, chatted up a friendly security guard at the site.

“He said, ‘Only one of the generators is on now; if you think this is loud, wait until all three are running,’” said Appel, who works out of his home on the 29th floor. “He said they could have used baffles to keep the generators quiet, but they didn’t.”

Appel and his wife have filed a noise complaint with the city.

As if that isn’t enough, Appel said, the air pollution from the generators is “pretty potent” and belies the organizers’ promise to put on a green Olympics.

“When you stand near them you can barely breathe,” he said.

The amendment to the 2006 renewable energy law was adopted on Saturday by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, the Xinhua news agency said.

The amendment also gives authority to the State Council energy department, together with the State Council finance department and the state power authority, to “determine the proportion of renewable energy power generation to the overall generating capacity for a certain period.”

Many other countries also have requirements that grid operators priorities the dispatch of power from renewable sources, even if it is more expensive than coal-fired baseload plants.

In China, a boom in wind-power plants thanks to government subsidies has resulted in a large amount of wind capacity that is not always properly connected to the grid. In some cases, the wind farms are not located at the optimal spot for wind.

One-third of China’s installed wind power capacity is not well connected to the grid, Xinhua said, citing industry experts.

Much of China’s wind power is installed in remote, wind-swept regions like Inner Mongolia and Gansu, where power demand is low. But some of the country’s cheapest coal generators are also in Inner Mongolia, pricing the wind farms out of the power market.

“Renewable energy power in the country’s resource-rich, underdeveloped northwestern region must be sent to the resource-scarce, prosperous coastal area,” said Wang Zhongyong, renewable energy director at the National Development and Reform Commission’s Energy Research Institute, according to Xinhua.

The relative independence of regional grids made such transmission difficult, Wang said.

China must develop more efficient “smart grids” as part of the solution, said Xiao Liye, director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The new requirement will also benefit China’s massive new nuclear power plants, although nuclear power is usually cheap enough to be competitive on its own.

Grid operators refusing to buy power produced by renewable energy generators could be fined up to double the loss suffered by the renewable energy generator, the amendment said.

China’s target is for renewable energy sources to make up 15 percent of its power generation by 2020, up from about 9 percent currently. It also targets a reduction in carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon produced per unit of GDP, of between 40 and 45 percent by 2020 compared with 2005.

Christmas morning concerns at Columbia’s Providence Hospital, where an electrical transformer exploded.

“I ran outside and all I saw was nothing but smoke,” said hospital worker Soto Manos.

Manos works at the hospital. In addition to a fire inside, Manos says the blast was so powerful it damaged a nearby building.

“It was a transformer machine right there that actually flew across the road and shattered all the glass and everything,” said Manos.

According to hospital officials the situation could have been worse. But because of the holiday, many people who would have been working in the building hit, were off.

“I hate to think of what could have happened because it went across the street,” said hospital spokesman John Kessler.

Kessler says the hospital prepares for emergencies like the one on Friday; and the nearly 100 patients inside were never at risk.

“Alarms went off because we lost power for a couple of seconds, the lights flickered, it caused an emergency response and a command center was implemented,” said Kessler.

Right after the explosion, Providence used it’s generator for temporary power. Officials are now investigating to find out what caused the Christmas day chaos.

Crews have been able to restore most of the hospital’s main power. Right now, there is no official damage estimate.

With so many people in the region relying on alternative fuel sources because of storm-related power outages, fire officials are urging people to exercise caution when using emergency generators in order to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

A Washington County couple died over the weekend from carbon monoxide poisoning. Emergency and law enforcement personnel found a recently running gas generator in the basement of the home of James and Ann Garland, where the couple were found dead in their bedroom Sunday afternoon.

Kingsport Fire Department Public Education Officer Barry Brickey said such tragedies are all too common during the winter and in times of stormy weather when power outages occur.

“Folks are trying to manage or just get a source of heat going, and the fumes given off by a generator or other source are dangerous, even if they are properly set up outside,” Brickey said.

“(Carbon monoxide) is an odorless gas that is colorless and invisible. When you use gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil and methane to heat or cook things inside, that is when the levels can get dangerously high and can be fatal.

“It is very important to have a carbon monoxide detector installed. Most people will have things like generators running outside their homes, but those fumes can sometimes find their way back into the house, and those levels must be monitored.”

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Fire Protection Association shows 166 people died from unintentional non-fire-related carbon monoxide poisoning between 2002 and 2004.

More than 15,000 people were treated for carbon monoxide related sickness, and municipal fire departments responded to 61,100 related incidents in that time span, the report said.

Tips recommended by the NFPA include:

• Alarms should be installed in a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the house and in other locations where required by applicable laws, codes or standards.

• For the best protection, interconnect all carbon monoxide alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.

• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for placement and mounting height.

• Choose an alarm that has the label of a recognized testing laboratory.

• Call your local fire department’s non-emergency number to find out what number to call if the carbon monoxide alarm sounds.

• Test carbon monoxide alarms at least once a month. Replace them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

• If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries. If the battery is low, replace it. If it still sounds, call the fire department.

• If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, immediately move to a fresh air location outdoors or by an open window or door. Make sure everyone in the home is accounted for. Call for help from a fresh air location and stay there until emergency personnel arrive.

• If you need to warm a vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after starting it. Do not run a vehicle or other fueled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors are open. Make sure the exhaust pipe of a running vehicle is not covered with snow.

• During and after a snowstorm, make sure vents for the dryer, furnace, stove and fireplace are clear of snow buildup.

• A generator should be used in a well-ventilated location outdoors away from windows, doors and vent openings.

• Gas or charcoal grills can produce carbon monoxide — only use them outside.

Osprey from the reserve have been satellite tagged

A RSPB reserve in the Highlands plans to replace a noisy generator which has been blamed for a humming noise and poor picture quality on its webcasts.

The Loch Garten reserve has a webcam showing an osprey nesting site, which is streamed on the internet.

Reserve staff hope to raise funds towards the £109,000 cost of connecting to mains electricity, cutting reliance on the gas generator.

The project involves burying a cable underground for more than a mile.

In a posting on the reserve’s blog, manager Richard Thaxton said the generator was unable to cope with technology needed to run the webcam and faster internet speeds.

Updates are provided over the internet on young osprey raised in the nest and satellite tagged so their migration to Africa can be tracked.

Wave energy got a boost with the connection of the Oyster hydro-electric device to the electricity grid in Scotland last Friday.

Aquamarine Power activated the connection of the Oyster in the waters off Orkney, marking one of the few ocean power devices to be producing electricity.

The device is a hydraulic pump operated by a “hinged flap,” where a large metal piece moves back and forth from the motion of the waves. The movement moves a hydraulic piston that pumps water underground to a hydro-electric turbine that drives a generator to make electricity.

The peak power output of the Oyster 1 is about two megawatts, depending on the location. The company, which received research funding from the U.K. government, is now working on a second-generation device.

There are a number of technologies being pursued to convert wave or tidal energy into electrical energy, including underwater generators. The advantage of the pump design is that it’s relatively simple and many components, such as gear boxes and generators, are not exposed to the water.

Twenty Oysters, which are attached to the seabed at about 10 meters of water, could produce enough electricity to power 9,000 homes in the U.K., according to Aquamarine Power.

In the U.S., the Seadog Pump uses a similar approach of pumping water offshore to a hydro-electric turbine to make electricity.

The Oyster was tested at the European Marine Energy Centre. In the U.S., there is an effort to establish an ocean power research center in southern Massachusetts.

About the size of a small moving van, the diesel generator can process several types of refuse, including paper, plastic, Styrofoam, cardboard, woodchips and food waste.

The biorefinery uses two different processes to create fuel.

The machine separates food material into a bioreactor that uses the yeast ferments to create ethanol.

Other materials go to a gasifier and are converted into propane gas and methane, which then fuel the diesel engine that creates electricity.

The system is designed to run on diesel oil for several hours until the gasifier and the bioreactor begin to produce fuel, researchers said.

The Army commissioned completion of a prototype and is considering it for future use. According to its builders, the system lowers the potential danger and expense of transporting fuel and waste and helps cover the tracks of mobile military units because it destroys trash–the evidence of their presence.

The generator is also an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional diesel generators, they say. Using biomass as a fuel is less polluting than oil because plants absorb carbon dioxide, according to scientists at Indiana-based Purdue.

Also, they note that the system is efficient, with the first prototype producing about 90 percent more energy than it consumes.

Maybe the deployment of these “gizmos” might just help turn the tide on the bad guys in the “war” zones: imagine a “Portable, trash-powered generator” to provide combat units with unlimited power for medical equipment usage in cases where the choppers can come under heavy fire and risk being shot down - they can be treated in-house - less travel risks, less risk to supply lines/routes…

sounds a perfect product，when is it built? Maybe in the future….