The fun continues

The biggest power plant I ever worked in was the New York State Electric and Gas Somerset Power Plant. It is situated on the south shore of Lake Ontario about halfway between Rochseter and Niagara Falls, and is now called Kinte Station. I was assigned there for more then six months during plant startup and commissioning.

It was an exciting and demanding job. I was fortunate to be in the main control room when the first power was generated and subsequently placed on the national grid. We had responsibility for the burner management system which supervised the automatic startup, shutdown and monitoring of the 48 coal burners in the boiler, and would trip the unit if any of the measured limits were exceeded.




The next two pictures were taken from the Coal Handling Control Room located at the top of a tower in the Coal Yard. The upper picture is a view to the north and the power plant itself. The tallest building in the background housed the boiler. The other smaller buildings in the foreground contained electro-static precipitators and lime scrubbers for pollution control.




Here we can see the vast coal yard and rail unloader line that encircles it. Although I have forgotten many of the details, I believe the plant would require somethin like a hundred trainloads of coal per day to satisfy the boiler fuel requirements at maximum capacity.





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