One night Chandler's Dad was working a graveyard shift, he is an electrician for Huntington Power plant up Huntington Canyon. We went up to visit him at about midnight and I was able to get a tour of the whole plant. It was VERY interesting!
The tour started out towards the top of the mountain where I saw a conveyor belt that was moving out of the mountain very fast. The belt was full of coal and it was dumping it under a huge shed. That part alone was amazing to me knowing that there were miners in the mountain right then putting coal on the belt and with all the machinery deep inside the mountain. As the coal was being dumped in this open shed there were two bull dozers shoveling mounds of coal back and forth so the coal wouldn't pile up in one spot. The tractors move allll night long.
(Lets see if I can remember the process). Once the coal is brought down to this large shed area outside where it is kept then the coal gets put back on another conveyor belt and taken across the road into another building. The coal is put into these big cilos that is then pulverized or crushed to the consistency of sugar. I saw the conveyor belt moving with the coal on it..It was moving so fast you couldn't even see it moving.
(the belt)
(the cilos behind us)
From there the powder is then pushed into pipes and shot into a HUGE burner that is many stories tall. The coals burner is placed in the center of the plants building and it is gigantic and it sits on a pool of water. It was so cold outside but inside the plant it was very warm due to the burning of the coal- it had a very eerie feeling about it for me...
On each floor of the building there is access to the inside of the burner. Dennis opened up one of the compartment doors and it was SO BRIGHT to look at and HOT, you could see the coal blowing around inside because it maintains a certain pressure so that when these little doors are opened to be checked on that nothing blows out. It sucks everything inward.
This picture was taken looking down thru many other levels of the plant. I was walking on this grid like flooring with boots with heels. All the floors are like this so you can see whats going on on each level.
Once the coal is burnt the smoke is sent into a scrubber where the smoke is filtered to where it is clean enough to be released into the environment through the tall 600 feet smoke stacks (pictured in a previous post). There is steam that is created from the burner and it powers and turns a turban (the thingy Dennis and I are standing on) and there are coils of magnets inside that are creating energy with major forces and power of electricity. That electricity is sent out to a sub station and the electricity is sent to a grid and it is dispersed across the United States.
This huge Green machine we are standing on is a GE (general electric) made machine. Its crazy to think that they make and create these machines just like my water heater at home or my fridge.
Everything was so loud we had to wear ear plugs and hard hats and glasses. There would be random pieces of coal on the ground..Seems like is could be a very dangerous place but at the same time all the men were very nice and seemed like they knew exactly what they were doing!
We also stopped in at the offices and saw all the computers and met the men that sit at these computers to make sure everything is flowing and running just right. We could see the cilos and the different machines working away.
These are a few more photos of inside the plant where there are a lot of machines, coal dust, pipes, wires, stairs, and some more stuff.
I found it so fascinating to be there and learn and watch the whole process. It reminded me how important every individuals dirty/hard/laboring/long/late night jobs are so important to our living and day to day uses on this earth. We can easily take the small things in life for granted when switching on our bedroom light switch or traffic lights in town. I can have more appreciation now knowing with my own eyes some of these crazy jobs people have. From the miners inside the mountain to the men the service the machines and are there in case of emergency!
Thank you Dennis for a wonderful educational tour! Thank you for working so hard for your family! We love you! And please be safe!
