Mean Power Machines

Electricity , the blood of modern civilization

is the most mean product of civilization as
well. So much of activities are involved for
production of electricity which is not found
in any other industry.

The modern superthermal power plants produce more than 1000 MW power
from single utility. Right from the coal mining upto transmission of power is all
spread on huge tracts of land.

First coal is mined from huge open cast mines. The over burden of the open cast
mines are kept just at the edge of the mines. Over the years this over burden
becomes so huge and ugly that from sky it looks like blisters on the earth.

The Indian 'F' grade coal which is used in power plant is black and wet and
containing ash to the tune of 50%, requires in huge quantity for producing so
little of electricity. Just for producing one unit of electricity it requires at least
800 grams of coal.

Alternatively you can say that for monthly supply of electricity for your
palatable home in Mumbai which consumes say 500 units of electricty, requires
to burn 400 Kgs of Indian coal in some power plant.

Had our machines were more efficient like chlorofil of green tree which
converts sunlight directly into food and oxygen we would have required only
133 Kgs of coal for producing 500 units of electricity and 2/3rd of the heavily
polluting open cast mines would not have been dugged at all.

But our coal burning thermal power plants are hardly converting 35% to 40%
coal into electricity. The rest of the coal is just making up our ineffeciencies and
causing environment pollutions.

From mines the coal comes to coal handling plant of a typical thermal power
plant by merry-go-round system. It's a round about railway carriage system, the
locomotives drive the wagons which loads coal at mines end and then unloads
at the plant end. It's a continuous 24*7 operations.

Next to the Mines & the MGR system it is the coal handling plant or the CHP
which is the second most ugliest place to work in a thermal power plant. The
black and dirty coal is everywhere in CHP. It's fine powdery dust flies from the
unloading point upto the loading chute of the boiler. During monsoon it gets
mixed up with water and blows into all the drains and pots. Seeing the color of
drain water you can safely declare that it's upstream leads to the CHP.

The coal is conveyed by conveyor belt to the pulverizers. The huge power
guzzling ball mills or the more sophisticated bowl mills both are the sources of
huge sound pollution. Here the coal is crushed to powder and then being air
borne conveyed to the boiler.

Any leakage here leads to prufuse leakage of coal dust particles around the
boiler. The powdered coal dust lekage from around any boiler is one of the most
ugliest sights.

A typical power plant consumes plenty of water for it's operation. Besides
drinking, water in a power plant is used for making steam , running turbine and
cooling . Ofcourse no water gets mixed with the electricity it produces. The
water is finally evaporated into air or goes to the ash slurry pond to be
evaporated later.

The funny way of making electricity is that we heat water for making steam and
then we cool steam for making it water again. In the cooling process alone more
than 50% heat is lost along with water. Such a mean machine it is.

The normal river water or sea water is taken inside the pre treatment plant or the
PT Plant first. For places like Delhi and surrounding the drainage water is used
for water source.

In PT plant water is treated for the first level of purification. Huge quantity of
chemicals are used for making water clean and free from chemical impurities
like salts and minerals. After pre treatment plant the water is sent to the De
Minarelized water treatment plant or the DM Plant . Here water is throughly
treated for making it absolutely free from minerals, Ions and salts. The key
ingradients for running a DM Plant or PT Plant is huge quantity of chemicals
,chlorines and Acids. Not a very impressive area to visit.

Once the water is pure ,it goes to the boiler. In Boiler ,water is heated to make
steam. The steam is then further heated to make super heated steam. Super
heated steam is then goes into the turbine to run it. Turbine when rotates ,it
takes the generator in toe. The generator produces electricity.

The electricity thus produced is at a very low voltage level. This is then stepped
up to very high voltage like 400 KV or 760 KV in another ugly looking device
called Generator Transformers. The high voltage electricity is then reaches the
switchyard where from it is sent to the distributors. The switchyard is another
big desolute place in a power plant. You won't find any bird flying above
swichyard. They meticulosly avoid this area.

Besides Mines , MGR , CHP , PTP and DMP some power plants have hydrogen
plants too which breaks water by hydrolysis that you might have read in your
school days to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen is then used in the Generators
for cooling.

All put together ,It's a myriad number of activities done for producing some
electricity.

But the matter does not end here. The fall out of all these activities result in
several types of environmental pollutions.

The huge ash it produces partly goes to the sky , some amount is taken away by
the cement companies and the remaining is mixed with water to form a thick
ash slurry which is transported to ash dykes where it is stored under water.
Leakage of Ash in a typical Indian power plant is very common site.

The ash goes into the sky is ofcourse very less but to be frank still it is so much
that it is a potential health hazard.

The areas like Korba in Chhattisgarh , Shaktinagar in UP are surrounded by so

many power plants and mines that the atmosphere here are having huge
suspended particles which is way beyond the safe limit (safe limit = 100 mg
/m3 for 10 micron or less particles) .

Most of the chimneys are emitting thick smoke ,violating the pollution norms.
Their electro static precipitator or the device which filters ash from going into
the chimney is either very old & outdates or does not work satisfactorily.

The air becomes heavy during evening. Every morning you would find thick
layer of ash on roof , ponds , table top, TV screens and inside your laungs.

Disease like asthma and bronchaities are very common around these area.

The water in these area is depleting very fast. The monsoon rain is highly
irregular , summer is more intense and winter is scarce. If these are not
alarming then we are sleeping still.
So, the electricity what you get for say RS: 5 / unit is actually coming after a
hell lot of activities and pollutions. Mother nature does not do so much
activities for so less output.

The supernovas or the sun are all sources of infinite energies but they are not
doing so much activities for it.

The plant and trees are converting sun's energy into food and oxygen but they
are not doing so much works. It's so easy and the way of their life.

The solar Photo Voltaic cells are hardly 20% efficient but they are much simple
and extremely easy to use. Only they are so much less relaible . During clowdy
days or during monsoon they are dead. But they are having great possibility to
replace all these polluting machines.

Similarly the hydrogen fuel cell is another technology which produce electricity
without pollution. But there is not much R&D going on for it in our country.

But the truth is that there will be a day when we will rediscover that we can live
with out electricity but we cannot live without pure air and water. We need it
more than anything else.

A solar power plant

S. Bera
Powai