TOPIC 13

POWER STATION

OBJECTIVES:
 The students are able to read the passage regarding Power Station.
 The students are able to answer the questions regarding Power Station based
on the passage given.
 The students are able to mention the function of a second request for payment.
 The students are able to write a second request for payment.

1. Power Station
Read the passage and answer the questions.
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating
station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power.
Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many power stations contain one or more generators, a rotating machine that
converts mechanical power into three-phase electric power. The relative motion
between a magnetic field and a conductor creates an electric current.
The energy source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. Most power
stations in the world burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to generate
electricity. Clean energy sources include nuclear power, and an increasing use
of renewables such as solar, wind, wave, geothermal, and hydroelectric.
In early 1871 Belgian inventor Zénobe Gramme invented a generator powerful
enough to produce power on a commercial scale for industry.
In 1878, a hydroelectric power station was designed and built by William,
Lord Armstrong at Cragside, England. It used water from lakes on his estate to
power Siemens dynamos. The electricity supplied power to lights, heating, produced
hot water, ran an elevator as well as labor-saving devices and farm buildings.
In the autumn of 1881, a central station providing public power was built
in Godalming, England. It was proposed after the town failed to reach an agreement
on the rate charged by the gas company, so the town council decided to use
electricity. It used hydroelectric power for street lighting and household lighting. The
system was not a commercial success and the town reverted to gas.
In 1882 the world's first coal-fired public power station, the Edison Electric
Light Station, was built in London, a project of Thomas Edison organized by Edward
Johnson. A Babcock & Wilcox boiler powered a 93 kW (125 horsepower) steam
engine that drove a 27 tonnes (27 long tons) generator. This supplied electricity to
premises in the area that could be reached through the culverts of the viaduct without
digging up the road, which was the monopoly of the gas companies. The customers
included the City Temple and the Old Bailey. Another important customer was the
Telegraph Office of the General Post Office, but this could not be reached through the
culverts. Johnson arranged for the supply cable to be run overhead, via Holborn
Tavern and Newgate.
In September 1882 in New York, the Pearl Street Station was established by
Edison to provide electric lighting in the lower Manhattan Island area. The station ran
until destroyed by fire in 1890. The station used reciprocating steam engines to turn
direct-current generators. Because of the DC distribution, the service area was small,
limited by voltage drop in the feeders. In 1886 George Westinghouse began building
an alternating current system that used a transformer to step up voltage for long-
distance transmission and then stepped it back down for indoor lighting, a more
efficient and less expensive system which is similar to modern systems. The war of
the currents eventually resolved in favor of AC distribution and utilization, although
some DC systems persisted to the end of the 20th century. DC systems with a service
radius of a mile (kilometer) or so were necessarily smaller, less efficient of fuel
consumption, and more labor-intensive to operate than much larger central AC
generating stations.
AC systems used a wide range of frequencies depending on the type of load;
lighting load using higher frequencies, and traction systems and heavy motor load
systems preferring lower frequencies. The economics of central station generation
improved greatly when unified light and power systems, operating at a common
frequency, were developed. The same generating plant that fed large industrial loads
during the day, could feed commuter railway systems during rush hour and then serve
lighting load in the evening, thus improving the system load factor and reducing the
cost of electrical energy overall. Many exceptions existed, generating stations were
dedicated to power or light by the choice of frequency, and rotating frequency
changers and rotating converters were particularly common to feed electric railway
systems from the general lighting and power network.
Throughout the first few decades of the 20th century central stations became
larger, using higher steam pressures to provide greater efficiency, and relying on
interconnections of multiple generating stations to improve reliability and cost. High-
voltage AC transmission allowed hydroelectric power to be conveniently moved from
distant waterfalls to city markets. The advent of the steam turbine in central station
service, around 1906, allowed great expansion of generating capacity. Generators
were no longer limited by the power transmission of belts or the relatively slow speed
of reciprocating engines, and could grow to enormous sizes. For example, Sebastian
Ziani de Ferranti planned what would have been the largest reciprocating steam
engine ever built for a proposed new central station, but scrapped the plans when
turbines became available in the necessary size. Building power systems out of central
stations required combinations of engineering skill and financial acumen in equal
measure. Pioneers of central station generation include George Westinghouse and 
Samuel Insull in the United States, Ferranti and Charles Hesterman Merz in UK, and
many others.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is another name of a power station?
2. What is a power station?
3. What are power stations are generally connected to?
4. What do many power stations contain?
5. What is the function of a rotating machine?
6. What creates an electric current?
2. Demanding Payment (A Second Request for Payment)
The following is the example of a second request for payment. This letter is
sent if the client does not pay attention to the first request for payment.

Timeright Watches Plc Tel: (061) 836142

Time House Telex: 663321
Fell Road
Manchester M6 8lk

J.R Gomez Your ref:

60 Rua Brancamp Our ref.: HN/DL
Lisbon Portugal

Dear Sir

STATEMENT – 1 April

On 10 May we reminded you that your April account for ₤8,825.04 had not
been settled. According to our records we have not yet received payment and I
therefore enclose another copy of the settlement.

Please give this matter your immediate attention and let us have your remittance
by return.

Yours faithfully

H Newman

H NEWMAN
Chief Accountant

Enc: 1

QUESTIONS:
1. Why is another copy of the statement enclosed?
2. How soon must Mr. Gomez settle the account?

ASSIGNMENT:
1. Answer the questions of each section.
2. Write an example of a second request for payment.