Wow! it takes some 4 Million horsepower to generate 2900 Megawatts....in a perfect world with no losses. Thank you for maintaining and supervising your emissions systems. Clearly, most of the public has no idea how ''clean'' your plant is as compared to earlier coal fired plants. In fact, the public has no comprehension of the magnitude of designing, building, and operating a power station such as yours. Electric Power Distribution falls in the realm of magic for most citizens. They complain about environmental impact yet are the first to cry when power gets interrupted by storm, winds, accidents, etc. I am a retired Field Engineer who started at General Electric Co. installing and maintaining gas turbine generator sets throughout the world. A 70 Megawatt unit is HUGE for me! Great video. I appreciate your work!

Very, very interesting. Very clever process! We take electricity for granted but it's a major undertaking at each step. Impressive indeed!

Wow!!! This is like the most thrilling video in all of KZfaq! Seeing how it has not yet put Hollywood out of business, it is clearly being suppressed.

There is a ton of misinformation in the comments regarding alternative energy sources. So, just to be clear; 1) All conventional thermal power plants operate exactly the same way. The only variable is the source of the heat: nuclear fission, combusted fuel, concentrated solar radiation, etc. Every single one uses the same turbine, heat exchanger, induction generator, heat removal fluid (a water mixture). 2) The reason we don't just switch to all solar and wind generation is because there is no good way to store energy. We don't use the same amount of power throughout the day; there is a huge spike in demand in the afternoon through late evening, and very little usage at night. This is called demand response: the grid must be able to quickly adapt to large surges in energy demand within minutes. Most renewables (save for hydroelectric damming) just don't have that level of flexibility. If the sun isn't shining, your photovoltaics aren't on. Thermal plants have been time tested to be able to respond to these fluctuations. 3) As some have pointed out, there is some type of balance to strike between electricity sources. Supplementing traditional thermal plants with alternatives is the only realistic way to meet our modern energy demands. That is, unless we can find a way to store excess energy produced in low demand periods (this is particularly important for wind). 4) Moreover, the small scale cost of solar panels and wind turbines is very appealing but the scaled cost of operation ($/MWh) is laughably outrageous compared to a nuclear or coal-fired thermal plant due to the energy availability factor (EAF) alone. TL;DR In sum, coal plants won't be gone any time soon, and there is no silver bullet "just use x" solution at this time, primarily due to the lack of proper energy storage and redistribution technologies.

I've been in the power generation industry for 30-years, and this is the best overview of coal-fired power generation that I've seen. It's very well done. I follow-up with one for natural gas fired, combined cycle, which has twice the efficiency, would be a great addition. But I'm sure something like this is very expensive to produce. Keep up the good work.

Your 3D designer is amazing! Nice work un-named designer.

I've been in a similar but older power station. This video is spot on, as far as it goes.

I’m attending ysu in Ohio for their electrical utility technology (power plant) associates degree and found this very helpful. Thank you!

Really appreciate this video. This helped me gain knowledge of power plants so I didn't sound like a complete dummy in my latest video "Going inside of exhaust side of a turbine" Thanks!

Top notch video and a perfect explanation.

One of the best videos on power generation that I have seen. Thanks!

AFTER WATCHING THIS VIDEO, I HAVE COME TO THE REALIZATION THAT I HAVE CONTRIBUTED NOTHING TO THIS WORLD..... THANKS A LOT.....

Never knew that there was SO much involved in producing clean output! I'd be curious to know what percentage they clean up the exhaust.

Interesting video of a highly efficient plant, I have seen the cooling towers many times from the Interstate.

Thanks for the well-made educational video. I was told years ago that the coal coming out of a pulverizer is like flour. Close enough.

I'm a retired union Boilermaker loved working at plant miller my last job lots of fun and MONEY LOL

this is incredible. makes you really appreciate the people who keep our country running.

It is a very good clip for basic information.Plz make the video with every part so details that anyone can understand without help of plant engineer

A truly amazing CGI job. I had to look twice to confirm the opening aerial view was not a drone shot.

Great presentation, very informative. Thanks for your video. I will use the video in my Thermodynamic class.

This is a very good video which explains the entire process involved in producing electricity from coal. Wallboard is a very useful by product of this. It is rather alarming how much coal is needed to keep a power station going.

That's the Industrial Revolution, and continuing momentum. Things are always changing and adapting.

Great presentation, very informative.

Very good video with kind intention to educate people ! Thanks for sharing ! Looking forward for more of these high quality video ! Thanks !

Not mentioned: the arsenic, mercury, cadmium, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other materials released into the atmosphere that cannot be easily or economically dealt with.

"Clean energy" cannot stay near the word "coal"... Anyone can say its energy production system is clean than another, but the real pathways to produce really clean energy are very few, and sure coal is not one of these. I appreciate though the great amount of technology and engineering involved in this kind of plant.

Thanks for the video, concise, yet covered a lot of basics. Well done!

Oh, interesting! I didn't know these places doubled as the first stage of wallboard manufacturing!

this is a very well put together video!

I realize it may be hard for some people to grasp, but the steam temperature is indeed 1000 degrees F and 2400 PSI leaving the superheater to the HP turbine and then sent back to the boiler and reheated to 1000 degrees again and 525 PSI going to the intermediate (IP) turbine. Saturated steam such as 400-600 degrees would do great damage to the turbine.

I AM GOING TO BE WORKING THERE SOON! MY FAMILY HAS BEEN WORKING FOR GORGUS AND MILLER FOR 60+ YEARS!

I do love any 3D animation videos on industrial processes, so thanks for that, interesting to see. However, call me a treehugger if you will, yet it's difficult to shake the feeling that this is an outdated and dirty method of electrical generation. I'm not saying anything about any other form of generation. I read the comments; I'm not interested in arguing. I'm just saying I highly highly doubt we will be generating electricity with these methods far into the future. I'm glad there are other advances in all fields, including fusion.

This power plant is literally the largest single point source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Like the entirety of the us Industrial complex, this is the single biggest emitter.

Thank you for the excellent demonstration of power plant. Indeed the virtual tour was great

It may shock you to learn this but water boils at 30c in a vacuum and returns to liquid at 29c the expansion rates are the same no matter how the water boils. This means in a closed system you can run a steam engine off heat from the sun and endothermic from water sources you could even run an air conditioner use the heat to boil water and the cold to return it to liquid.

That was VERY interesting and well explained. Can anybody here explain why the water is cooled with water towers? Why wouldn't you resend the hot water back into the boiler with all that residual heat rather than cooling it first? I got lost there.

I had no idea gypsum was a byproduct of electric plants.

thank you so much for this video. Very educational. I am new to the industry. Love this tour. Thanks

I am very grateful for this kind of scientific report

11pm and here i am watching how energy is made

Very well done! Thanks for the video!

Was in the navy. Turns out I did this job already lol Good to know the concepts and method is pretty much 1 to 1. Minus the ship

I'm doing a lot of maintenance on some power plants in Europe and must say it's not like a job for everyone

After watching this I cannot fathom why nuclear energy is frowned upon.

Excellent, presentation...!!!😎

Thanks for the informative plant tour. I'd like to know what software is used to create this nice animation?

Love everything about this video but the coal.

We need to replace all coal plants with nuclear. Nuclear can do the same baseload job without any CO2 or particulate emissions.

Thanks for your video, it's an amazing animation

I would have liked to have seen something about the DC power that is fed into the generator rotors, but it's beyond the scope of this video.

Great to see the generation of reliable electricity 24/7 regardless of the weather.

So do they really have Canadian pacific (cp) trains hauling coal down in Alabama? or is that just the animation? tia

Well, the generator water is already a closed system. Replace the boilers with two thorium 232 reactors and get rid of all the complicated mess dealing with pollution.

I know the fly ask can be used for cement but what can the bottom ask be used for? Saw a video about a Canadian coal fired plant where the bottom ask didn't seem to have any use? Anyone know what bottom ask can be used for?

Watching this as i study for my GPO 2.0 test.. very nice

Holy freaking switch yard...

i know the fly ash is used for cement manufacturing, anyone know if there's any use for the bottom ash?

Actually located in Jefferson county Alabama, adjacent to the town of west Jefferson .Quinton is in Walker county Alabama the post office is located there.

Not enough in the presentation in the transmission section. I always assumed 25kv or so from the generator output was put into a step transformer as they said, but wanted to know more, as I'd heard that the high 400kv voltage in the step up transformer went through a spark gap. Then, it goes on a slasher for the 50 or 60 timing. It's transmitted out as a DC pulse, supposedly at high frequency like 55khz, with a 50 or 60 slash. Gerald Morin was explaining in this in his videos. How does a steam turbine maintain the 'exact' 3000 or 3600 rpm to maintain the 50 or 60 hz output? Also, the power generator itself couldn't produce enough power, unless it runs faster, then the power is converted later in the line. I'd like to know more about how the pole transformers work. They receive the 'transmitted' line, no neutral, which is grounded to earth at each end, the live wire terminated in the can itself. Also, burning coal is very inefficient. Peter Davey invented a device that heated water up immediately, just using acoustic resonant sound waves. Also water could be used, by splitting it into hydrogen from oxygen, then using the hydrogen gas to heat the water. The burning temperature of the hydrogen would need to be lowered down, so the gas doesn't burn through anything. It's impossible to transmit.. current over the grid, so the current along with the 120 or 240 50/60hz is done from the pole transformer itself.

Sweet home Alabama (I'm not from Alabmana)

In response to the last message you cant pump steam. I often wondered this apparent loss of energy. But having worked at 1900 mw power plant for many years this is one of the inefficiency's of the process. Attempts have been made to use this heat source to heat green houses etc. The results are not cost effective. This video tells it like it is.

Good video , may I know which company ?

wowwwwwww... the beauty of power !!

Coal power is eco hostile regardless of how hard we try to clean the exhaust but, the engineering is brilliant though. The future is wind, solar, wave, and LFTR. LFTR stands for liquid fluoride thorium reactor.

Sweet Powerplant Alabama

? Why do the water vapor towers not have a turbine/generator at the top of them or throughout it? ( having more surface area will increase the amount of water that gets collected at the bottom, it also creates another point of power generation in the same system. Windmills completely depend on outside air, having it in the vapor tower makes it's run at all times and gets extra power output when the wind blows.) Ps. Lol that's really a question I love to learn so plz explain if you can =) and I know I'm horrible at grammar =)

Reminds me of the Jurassic Park DNA scene. Love the voice-over.

awesome video, great description of the process. obviously a huge amount of engineering went into this.

Wish we would move towards nuclear instead of renewables or fossil fuels.

Where I reside, enormous coal trains come into a station that coal fires enormous furnace that boil water into steam. The steam turns lots of turbines that turn enormous alternators. The power is then distributed to station that step down the voltage.

Video incorrectly says Plant Miller at 2900 MWatts is the Largest Generating Station in the State. No Sir, TVA holds that honor with their Browns Ferry plant, at time of video WAS producing 3400 MWatts and with their recent updates NOW producing 3800 MWatts, by far the largest generating station in Alabama and one of the largest power producers in our nation.

did the guy just say clean energy?

Thankyou sir awesome video

Coal is the future in the world with C02 free power plants

Plz tell me, Turbine in refinery is the same it or not, bro. Thank you so much.

I liked it. We still need the coal people, they're doing a lot of modernization processes like the many scrubbing/cleaning stages.

Excellent animation

You can thanks these guys for getting you cheap gypsum for your homes

What I don't understand is how the power company creates a circuit with single or even 3 phase power. The top wire is the hot wire and then the "nuetral" wire is underneath. The nuetral is never hot unless there's a fault, which then it is connected to ground almost every 5 poles. Then the hot wire runs into your homes transformer, just 1 wire in. Then theres 3 wire service cable that runs to the house, 2 hot wires which are covered and 1 neutral wire which is bare. The nuetral wire is never "hot" and the top end of the transformer the hot wire only runs in, theres no out. Electricity needs a circuit to work, so how does the power company complete there circuit? They call the hot wire the "P"ower wire, and the "N"uetral wire. Your breaker box runs P wire in through the breaker and then the circuit runs back and is connected to ground. The nuetral that's runs in is also connected to ground. But the nuetral is never hot?

So much was left out. You cannot just use chlorinated river water for the steam. Those turbine blades would be destroyed in no time. That water needs to be clean and pure for when it’s turned into dry superheated steam. Those turbines run with steam at 3000lbs of pressure at 1005°F. So much more into it then what was said here.

Although coal won’t go away I believe nuclear power is the future with generation 4 reactors producing 2000 MWh per reactor is the future.

Wow. Pretty complex.

Good informative video though you have mentioned the temperature is 1000 degree in fact it can't exceed 550 c .

DRAX in the UK, 3.6GW HAHA, but your video is far better . Nice to see, thanks.

Fascinating.

Better understanding 👍

Burning coal may be a dirty job, but it keeps your lights on, your heater warm, and your mobile phone charged up. No-one's willing to look at any alternatives, and even fewer want wind turbines in their backyard. So we're kinda stuck.

Ahh, so that raises the question: Since you appear to use electricity just to get things moving and grinding before you can boil and generate, how do you boot a place like this up? I mean... if it somehow lost the grid all around, or if it were the only one on a specific grid. Does it have diesel generators to give it its boot-up power for that?

CONVERT IT TO NUCLEAR!

Fantastic video tour and explanation of good responsible technology. The green vegetation loves the CO2 and the Alabamans love the base load electricity. We should use more coal for generating power with similar clean technology. If you don't believe me, ask anybody anywhere in a prolonged power outage if they missed their grid electricity.

You didn't explain that the cooling tower water pulls a vacuum on the stm condenser which increases the efficiency of the stm turbine!

nice one, sure you try to keep a 37 day supply but how many days are guaranteed would be the question, sub-bituminous? how does that compare to anthrocite I wonder

It's nice to actually watch one of these when it's _fact based_ and created by the people who are actually running the process. It gives me something to reference when I run across other videos that are full of detritus and guessing, and where people in the comment section are losing their minds about all the "pollution" coming out of the stacks, when in fact, it's *steam* that they are seeing. People can be such IDIOTS...

Is it already closed?

Alberta, Canada produces most of its electric power from coal. However, a major move is underway to phase out coal in favor of natural gas. Wind and solar are increasing as well and, down the road, geothermal and small scale nuclear may play more of a role in electricity production also.

I have to take a test in my school, I need to know *EVERYTHING* in this video.. such as how it function etc.. yeah big oof

Sweet home Alabama

thank u for your video

Is the limit of stepping up only 20 times ? Is it possible to steeping up more than 20 times by step up transformers ? Or it is limited ?

I do not understand how you can make a claim at 9:40, using COAL, and say it's "Clean energy". I mean, you quite purposefully left out any mention of carbondioxide emission and merely focused on NOx emissions. I am not one that particularly believes in the enormous effect we supposedly have had on the world temperature, but I do believe we should aim to cut all sorts of emissions that can be replaced by something more clean and sustainable. You've only taken steps on things you can monetize, like byproducts of the ashes.. but you've not done anything beyond that. Coal is a cheap way of generating electricity, but you seem to be purposefully stagnating the growth and development of any other source. Probably BECAUSE it's so costly and you do not want to take the bill for this. It's a damn shame. Truly a damn shame.