Pennsylvania Electric Company
Front Street Generating Station Erie, PA Rich Hall Western Mining Electrical Association (WMEA) May 28, 2015 Erie Maritime Museum
The museum tells the story of the fleet of ships built in Erie that defeated the British during the “Battle of Lake Erie” in the War of 1812; about a time when Erie was the largest fresh water fishing port in the world; about the USS Michigan (later USS Wolverine), the first iron hulled ship and longest serving powered ship in the US Navy that served out of Erie; and about the many shipwrecks off Erie, etc. The US Niagara, a working replica of the vessel built in Erie in 1812 - 1813
Photo by John Baker
Erie Maritime Museum
But the museum has other stories to tell, related to the coal mining industry. Erie Maritime Museum
The building that houses the museum was formerly the generator building of the Pennsylvania Electric Company Front Street Generating Station, a coal-fired steam power plant. Coal-fired power plants are the main customers of the coal mining industry, of course.
The museum contains some vintage equipment, including a steam turbine generator set (Unit #3) of 1926 vintage.
This plant was in operation from 1917 until the plant closed in 1991. Penelec Front Street Generating Station
Source: Erie Maritime Museum Web Site Conveyor to Smoke Stack Pulverizer and Boilers Boiler Buildings
Turbine/Generator Building Coal Stockpile Pennsylvania Electric Company’s Front Street Generating Station c. 1960
Coal arrived at the Front Street Station in railroad cars or trucks.
Conveyor belts moved it to storage bins, then to pulverizers which crushed it into dust.
Source: Erie Maritime Museum Display, Courtesy GPU Energy, Inc. Coal Conveyor
Turbine/Generator Building Pennsylvania Electric Company’s Front Street Generating Station c. 1960
Blowers moved the coal dust into boilers where it mixed with air and burned it at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The heat turned the water into superheated steam.
Source: Erie Maritime Museum Display, Courtesy GPU Energy, Inc. Pennsylvania Electric Company’s Front Street Generating Station c. 1960
The steam turned turbine/generators producing electricity that was transmitted on power lines to Erie’s homes and businesses.
Source: Erie Maritime Museum Display, Courtesy GPU Energy, Inc. Smoke Stack
Power Lines Transformers and Railroad Tracks Switchgear
Boiler Buildings Coal Storage
Generator Building The Erie Maritime Museum complex is located at the site of the Pennsylvania Electric Company’s Front Street Generating Station. The coal-fired station provided Erie with electricity from 1917 until 1991 when it was closed. The station also supplied steam for Erie’s steam heat system.
Source: Display in Erie Maritime Museum November 5, 2014 Erie Maritime Museum, former Penelec Generator Building
Turbine Hall
Looking North View of Turbine Hall Looking South Turbine Generator Unit #3
Condenser
Steam Turbine Generator Unit #3
Steam 15,000 KW Turbine DC Exciter Generator Turbine Generator Unit #3, 18,750 KVA, 15,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 4 Poles, Air Cooled, 1800 RPM
Steam Flow DC Exciter Generator, 250 Volt, 1000 Amperes (250 KW), 1800 RPM Commutator End Though this generator was serviceable it was not in service as the AC to DC conversion was handled by a GE Ignitron rectifier in early 1950s Original style brushes being installed April 2014
Showing Guests generator with new brushes Control Panel For Five Steam Turbine Generators and Transformers and Plant Control Panel in the Erie Maritime Museum Instrumentation is pre-digital age Voltages are color coded – Yellow = 33 KV; Green = 11 KV; Blue = 2300 Volt; Red = 440 Volt; Black = 208 Volt Former Penelec Smoke Stack Aerial pictures of the Front Street Generating Station Boiler Building (250 PSI Steam Pressure) Generator Building Coal
Penelec Front Street Generating Station - 1941 Boiler Building (650 PSI) Coal
Generator Building
Penelec Front Street Generating Station - 1947 Boiler Buildings (650 PSI) (1250 PSI)
Generator Building Coal
Niagara
Penelec Front Street Generating Station - 1958 A Bit of Power Plant History The first public power station was the Edison Electric Light Station, built in London at 57, Holborn Viaduct, which started operation in January 1882. This was an initiative of Thomas Edison that was organized and managed by his partner, Edward Johnson. A Babcock and Wilcox boiler powered a 125 horsepower steam engine that drove a 27 ton generator called Jumbo, after the celebrated elephant.
Source: Wikipedia 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.
Source: Wikipedia The War of 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.
Source: Wikipedia “Jumbo Dynamo”, Pearl Street Station
Source: > miSci, (museum) 15 Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady, NY 12308, 518.382.7890, Chris Hunter, ext. 241 First USA Power Plant – 1882
At New York City’s Pearl Street Station, where it was first installed, Edison’s team designed a huge dynamo—the largest ever built—which they nicknamed the Jumbo, and built six of them for the Pearl Street Station. Each Jumbo weighed about 27 tons and had a 10-foot armature shaft and an output of 100 kilowatts.
Source: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Edison%27s_Electric_Light_and_Power_System Each dynamo was driven by a steam engine, which received steam from boilers located in another part of the plant. http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Edison%27s_Electric_Light_and_P ower_System Coal as Fuel For Electricity Generation
The fuel for the Pearl Street Station in New York City was coal. Coal is believed to have been the fuel for the Edison Electric Light Station in London, as well.
So, coal has been a fuel for the power generation industry from the beginning. Steam Turbine
A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884.
Source: Wikipedia Steam Turbine Because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical generator. The steam turbine is a form of heat engine that derives much of its improvement in thermodynamic efficiency from the use of multiple stages in the expansion of the steam, which results in a closer approach to the ideal reversible expansion process.
Source: Wikipedia Modern GE steam turbines for electrical power generation are the result of more than 90 years of engineering development. The first GE production turbine was rated 500 kW and went into operation in 1901.
Source: STEAM TURBINES FOR LARGE POWER APPLICATIONS, J.K. Reinker and P.B. Mason GE Power Systems, Schenectady, NY Penelec Front Street Generating Station Equipment Dates Turbines Were Installed
Unit #1 – November 1917 (Original #1)
Unit #2 – June 1918 (Original #2)
Unit #3 – July 1927
Unit #4 – January 1944
Source: Penelec Records Dates Turbines Went Into Service
Unit # Capacity Steam Conditions Placed In Operation KW PSIG Degrees F
#1 16,400 1250 950 1953* #2 10,500 250 490 1956* #3 16,100 250 600 1927 #4 28,500 650 850 1944 #5 52,500 1250 950 1952
The station started with a capacity of 16,000 KW and grew to a capacity of 124,000 KW.
* Original No. 1 and No. 2 turbines of 6000 and 1000 KW capability respectively, installed in 1917, were replaced by the more efficient No. 1 and No. 2 turbines at the dates shown above.
Source: Penelec Records Electrical Generator Ratings
Unit # Rating
#1 GE, 23,408 KVA, 18,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 2 Poles, 3600 RPM, Hydrogen Cooled, 12,000 Volts
#2 GE, 12,500 KVA, 10,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 4 Poles, 1800 RPM, Air Cooled, 12,000 Volts
#3 GE, 18,750 KVA, 15,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 4 Poles, 1800 RPM, Air Cooled, 12,000 Volts
#4 GE, 31,250 KVA, 25,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 2 Poles, 3600 RPM, Hydrogen Cooled, 12,000 Volts
#5 GE, 62,500 KVA, 50,000 KW, 80% Power Factor, 2 Poles, 3600 RPM, Hydrogen Cooled, 12,000 Volts
Source: Penelec Records. There are some unexplained differences between some ratings in the Penelec records between this and the previous slide. Synchroscope for Synchronizing the Generator and Grid Before Connecting Synchroscope
In AC electrical power systems, a synchroscope is a device that indicates the degree to which two systems (generators and power networks) are synchronized with each other.
Source: Wikipedia Synchroscope
For two electrical systems to be synchronized, both systems must operate at the same frequency, and the phase angle between the systems must be very close to zero. Also, the generator 3 phase output power leads must have the same phase sequence as the grid. Synchroscopes measure and display the frequency difference and phase angle between two power systems.
Source: Wikipedia
Voltages must also match. Synchroscope
Comment: Modern digital synchroscopes may also display frequency , but the older analog scopes like the one in the previous slide, generally only display the phase angle between the generator and the power system.
Source: John Parslow, GE turbine generator engineer (retired) Synchroscope
Only when the phase angles are very near zero and the phase sequence is the same (and voltages match within OEM specifications) is it safe to connect the two systems together. Connecting two unsynchronized AC power systems together is likely to cause high currents to flow, which will severely damage any equipment not protected by fuses or circuit breakers.
Source: Wikipedia and John Parslow Synchroscope for Synchronizing the Generator and Grid Before Connecting Antique Electrostatic Precipitator Power Supply Vacuum Tube - Penelec Front Street Generating Station
17” 50 Ton Cleveland Crane 50 Ton Cleveland Crane (DC Powered) Auxiliary and Main Hooks Crane Motor Generator Set
AC Induction Motor DC Generator Crane MG Set – Early 1900s Vintage
50 HP Induction Motor & 275 Volt, 35 KW, 1200 RPM DC Generator The generator controls are a bit simpler than on mining excavators Installing new brushes, same as you do today Other Mined Products Used In Carbon Brushes • Lampblack (from Coal Tar) • Coal Tar • Coal Tar Pitch • Graphite • Copper (in grades, wires, rivets) • Tin • Lead • Silver • Molybdenum