Rio Tinto - Kennecott Power Plant

Most people have not learned to appreciate the skill and effort provided by individuals like Jim Marquez (a 47 year veteran of the power plant) and many others as they manipulate the technology and resources that go into creating the electrical power that we all take for granted. In this Rio Tinto power plant coal and natural gas fuel the boilers that produce the steam necessary to drive steam turbine generators. The power plant has the capacity to generate 175 megawatts of electricity with a transmission voltage of 44,000 volts - enough power to supply the needs of 200,000 average homes.

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Power Plant and cooling towers 19

Temperature control is a critical consideration when dealing with high temperature/pressure boilers and machinery with moving parts. The primary method of heat control at the power plant is done via a radiated heat exchange circuit using water to remove excess heat from the plant machinery, as well as effecting the cooling and condensation of spent turbine steam, and harmlessly radiating it into the atmosphere in the form of steam and air current.

Power Plant and cooling towers 22

The heat released by the towers in the cooling process (seen as steam rising from the towers) is enough to heat 8,200 homes in zero-degree weather.

Cooling Towers 23

These cooling towers cool heat laden water at a rate of 70,000 to 100,000 gpm to a temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit or lower before it is recirculated back into the power plant.

Cooling Towers 24

Steam rises as cooling water releases heat taken from plant operations.

Turbine Generators 25

#1 unit capacity: 50 megawatts (2nd from the foreground) - #2 and #3 unit capacity: 25 megawatts each (last two in the back of the image) - #4 unit (Foreground) takes super-heated stream at 1450 psig and 1000 degrees Fahrenheit to rotate the turbine at 3,600 rpm and produces 75 megawatts at 13,800 volts which goes through step-up transformers to produce 44,000 volts.

#4 Generator 26

#4 unit takes super-heated stream at 1450 psig and 1000 degrees Fahrenheit to rotate the turbine at 3,600 rpm and produces 75 megawatts at 13,800 volts which goes through step-up transformers to produce 44,000 volts.

Brush and Slip-Ring Assemply 27

This brush and slip-ring assembly on the #4 generator unit is the method by which exciter voltage (also referred to as the field voltage) is applied to the rotor (that part of the generator that is turned by the steam turbine). The rotor then produces a magnetic flux field that cuts through the stator (the stationary part of the generator) producing usable high voltage current.

Power Electrical Breaker 28

SF6 Gas High Voltage Power Electrical Breaker (44,000 Volts)

Power Electrical Breakers 31

SF6 Gas High Voltage Power Electrical Breakers and metal latticework with Knife Switches above.

Power Plant Control Room 34

The control room is located in the middle of the whole operation. One of the striking attributes of the power plant is the excellent housekeeping. All things considered it's an exceptionally clean operation.

Service Water Pumps 37

Pump Room Station Service Water Pumps circulate water from Station Service Cooling Tower to Power Plant Auxiliary equipment to keep equipment oil and bearings cool.

Babcock and Wilcox Boiler Front 40

Coal and natural gas feed lines entering the boiler fuel burners mixing with oxygen for combustion. It takes a skilled craftsman to look at this seemingly unorganized maze of pipes and lines and know exactly what each one does and how it all works together.

Power Plant Transportation Systems 43

The power plant uses a literal maze of pipelines to transport a wide variety of materials from water and air to coal and natural gas.

Feed Water Heaters 46

Some steam that has already driven the turbine is extracted and used to preheat feed water before it enters the boiler. Boiler water that is turned into steam, the coal fuel and the combustion air is all preheated for efficiency before entering the boilers.

Circulating Water Pumps 49

Turbine Condenser cooling is accomplished by using these pumps to circulate heated water from the condensers back up to the cooling towers where the water is cooled and gravity fed back through the condenser tubes. This results in a continuous closed loop.

Circulating Water Pumps 52

These Water Pumps are used to keep water circulating for Turbine Condenser cooling. The cooled water from the cooling towers flows through thousands of condenser tubes. As the steam that has driven the turbine envelopes the cooled condenser tubes it is condensed back to water and is reused to feed the boilers. Boiler feed water is highly purified and therefore the cooling tower cooling water and the condensed steam are two completely independent closed systems.

Coal Pulverizers 55

Each of the four boiler units have three pulverizers creating a coal dust with face-powder consistency. Pictured here are the original old end pulverizers.

Coal Pulverizers 58

Original old end pulverizers.

Heater Drip Pumps 61

As the steam preheats feed water to the boilers in the feed water heaters it is condensed back to water. The Heater Drip Pumps pump the condensed steam back into the system to be reused in the boilers.

Condensate Booster Pumps 64

The turbine steam which has been condensed back to water flows to the barometric well in the lower pump room. The Condensate Pumps pump the water to the condensate booster pumps on the 3rd floor level of the Power Plant. The Condensate Booster Pumps pump the water to the 7th floor of the Power Plant where it is stored in the Surge Tank for later use in the boilers.

Old End Boiler Steam Drum 67

All boiler water that has been turned to steam enters the boiler steam drum. From the steam drum the steam flows through the super heater sections of the boiler before going to the steam turbines.

Coal Galley 68

Coal travels on this belt the full length of the Galley eventually reaching the Coal Tripper where it is fed into whichever bunker the operator has positioned it over. The coal bunkers supply coal to the pulverizers.

Coal Galley Tripper 69

The tripper is able to travel the full length of the coal galley. Entwined with the Galley conveyor belt as it moves it is able to deposit coal into any one of several coal bunkers.

Coal Galley Tripper Belt 70

Coal travels along this belt that wraps over several drums on the "Tripper" causing the coal to fall into a chute that deposits it in one of several coal bunkers feeding the crushers.

Coal Tripper 71

Here you can see coal being deposited into a coal bunker by the Tripper.

Coal Bunker 73

The bottom of Unit 4 Coal Bunker entering the Pulverizer Coal Feeder. The coal feeder weighs the coal before dropping the coal down to the coal pulverizer so that the burner management system knows exactly the amount of coal being fed to the boiler.

Coal Scales and Pulverizers 74

These three pulverizers feed coal to the boiler that supplies steam for the #4 generator turbine. The average processing volume for each pulverizer is well over 10 tons of coal per hour. Consequently the furnace consumes nearly 800 tons of coal per day to produce the steam necessary to keep the steam turbine rotating.

Pump Room West Tunnel 76

Water lines feeding different areas of the plant.

Backup Battery Bank 79

DC Power used at loss of AC Power in the plant. Used for emergency lighting and powering of DC powered backup oil pumps.

Operations Control Room 82

The power plant has a generating capacity of 175 megawatts or enough power to supply 200,000 homes.

Condensate Booster Pumps 85

Unit 4 Boiler, High Pressure Boiler Feed Water Pump 88

The high pressure boiler feed water pumps are needed to replace the water in the boiler that has been turned to steam. The boiler steam pressure is 1500 psi and the feed water pumps must overcome that pressure to force water into the boiler tubes. These feed water pumps produce approximately 2300 psi water pressure.

Front End of the Boilers 91

Boiler Burner Fronts and Coal Pulverizer Weigh Scales. These scales precisely measure the coal being fed into the boiler.

Turbine/Generator Oil Filtration Unit 94

Turbine/Generator bearing oil supply and Turbine Hydraulic oil must be filtered and treated. The Oil Filtration Unit filters the oil which removes impurities and in the same unit evaporates any moisture that may be in the oil.

Generator Hydrogen Seal Oil System 100

The electrical windings in the generator casing create heat which is removed using hydrogen gas which absorbs the heat and dissipates it by passing around water filled coolers. To prevent the hydrogen gas from leaking out and oxygen from leaking in along the rotating element shaft the seal oil system pumps oil around the rotating shaft to help create a seal. While flowing around the shaft the oil absorbs some hydrogen gas and oxygen and returns to the seal oil system where the oxygen and hydrogen is vented off and the oil is circulated back to the rotating shaft creating a continuous seal.

Electro Static Precipitator Fly Ash Storage Hopper Deck 103

Fly Ash accumulated by the ESP is dropped into the storage hoppers below the ESP and is eventually pulled out of them by a pneumatic conveying system to another storage silo. From the storage silo the fly ash is mixed into a slurry and pumped to the tailings impoundment area. (this image is artistically rendered)

Abandoned Fly Ash Hoppers 104

Fly ash is a coal combustion product composed of fine particles that are driven out of the boiler with the flue gases. When the Electro Static Precipitator (ESP) was installed on the #4 boiler it collected the fly ash and the hoppers on the boiler (shown here) were no longer needed.

Steel Crusher Balls 106

Steel Crusher Balls 109

Large steel balls are spun around in a circular race to crush coal into a fine powder suitable for feeding into the boiler furnace. When wore down these steel balls are used as fillers when the full sized balls begin to wear down leaving gaps between the balls inside the circular race

Steel Crusher Balls 112

Artistically rendered

Steel Crusher Balls 115

Abandoned Control Air Lines 118

These pipes are remnants of the original pneumatic control system. Control air lines running from control stations to equipment located all over the plant. This system was converted to a Computer Control System in the mid 1980’s.

Control Panels 120

The old meets the new.

Dispatch Office Turbine/Generator Synchronizing Panels 121

Turbine/Generator speed (Cycles) is matched up with the Western Grid (Rocky Mountain Power) before closing in the generator 44,000 volt breaker which then allows the Western Grid to control our Turbine/Generator speeds (Cycles).

Electrical Control Panels 122

Turbine Spent Steam Condenser 124

Pictured here is an internal view of a Turbine condenser cooling tower water side. Water that has been cooled by the cooling towers flows through the tubes (seen here attached to the wall of this holding tank) while the steam that has already driven the turbine/generator envelopes the outer side of the tubes causing the steam to cool and condense back to water.

Slurry Lines 127

These concrete lines (2) carry the copper laden concentrate from the concentrator to the smelter for processing. The lines are over 12 miles long. The second line carries waste tailings from the concentrating process to the tailings impoundment area.

Kennecott Copper Smelter