Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery to end users or its storage.
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.
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
The Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board, operating as Manitoba Hydro, is the electric power and natural gas utility in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1961, it is a provincial Crown Corporation, governed by the Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board and the Manitoba Hydro Act. Today the company operates 16 interconnected generating stations. It has more than 527,000 electric power customers and more than 263,000 natural gas customers. Since most of the electrical energy is provided by hydroelectric power, the utility has low electricity rates. Stations in Northern Manitoba are connected by a HVDC system, the Nelson River Bipole, to customers in the south. The internal staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 998 while the outside workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034.
A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating gas engine. All plants use the energy extracted from the expansion of a hot gas, either steam or combustion gases. Although different energy conversion methods exist, all thermal power station conversion methods have their efficiency limited by the Carnot efficiency and therefore produce waste heat.
Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the power supplied commands a much higher price per kilowatt hour than base load power. Peak load power plants are dispatched in combination with base load power plants, which supply a dependable and consistent amount of electricity, to meet the minimum demand.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, commonly known as Hydro, is a provincial Crown corporation that generates and delivers electricity for Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as portions of Quebec and the north-eastern areas of the United States. Between 2007 and 2021, NL Hydro was a subsidiary of the provincial Crown-owned energy holding company Nalcor Energy.
Newfoundland Power Inc. is an electric utility owned by Fortis Inc. which is the primary retailer of electric power in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The company was formed by the Royal Securities Corporation of Montreal in 1924 as the Newfoundland Light & Power Company.
The Petty Harbour Hydro Electric Generating Station is a hydroelectric generating station in Petty Harbour–Maddox Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. It was constructed in 1898 and it was the first hydroelectric generating station in Newfoundland. It was built by the St. John's Street Railway Company, a company established by Robert Reid. Operation commenced on 19 April 1900.
The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy.
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam turbine connected to an electrical generator. The low-pressure exhaust from the turbine enters a steam condenser where it is cooled to produce hot condensate which is recycled to the heating process to generate more high pressure steam. This is known as a Rankine cycle.
The Bell Bay Power Station was a power station located in Bell Bay, on the Tamar River, Tasmania, Australia, adjacent to the Tamar Valley Power Station, with which it was often confused. It was commissioned between 1971 and 1974 as an oil fired thermal power station, and was converted to natural gas in 2003, after the commissioning of the Tasmanian Gas Pipeline, a submarine gas pipeline which transports natural gas from Longford, Victoria, under Bass Strait, to Bell Bay, Tasmania. As the power station's primary role was to provide system security in the event of drought for Tasmania's predominantly hydro-electric based generation system it only was rarely called on to operate, resulting in intervals of five to eight years between periods of significant use. After the commissioning of Basslink in 2006, the power station was decommissioned in 2009.
Hybrid power are combinations between different technologies to produce power.
A load-following power plant, regarded as producing mid-merit or mid-priced electricity, is a power plant that adjusts its power output as demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day. Load-following plants are typically in between base load and peaking power plants in efficiency, speed of start-up and shut-down, construction cost, cost of electricity and capacity factor.
Glanford Brigg Power Station is a gas-fired power station in North Lincolnshire, England. It is capable of firing diesel as a substitute of natural gas. It is situated on the River Ancholme, beside the Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg Line, outside the town of Brigg, with its name coming from the former name for the town. It has a generating capacity of 240 megawatts (MW).
The Potrero Generating Station was a natural gas and diesel burning electricity generating station owned by Mirant and located on a 23-acre (9.3 ha) site in Potrero Point, San Francisco, California. The plant's primary power source was a 206 MW, natural gas burning steam turbine providing baseload power and referred to as "Unit 3". In addition, three 52 MW peaking power diesel generators provided additional power during times of highest consumption. Since the closure of the Hunters Point Power Plant in 2006, Potrero was the last remaining fossil fuel power plant within the confines of San Francisco, with capacity to provide approximately 1/3 of the city's peak electrical power needs.
The West Springfield Generating Station, also known by its corporate name EP Energy Massachusetts, LLC, was a fossil-fuel-fired power plant located in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The station was a "peaking" facility, meaning that it primarily operates during peak electrical demand. The facility consisted of two 49-megawatt (MW) combustion turbine generators fueled by natural gas or ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel, one 18 MW jet turbine that was fueled by kerosene, and one 107 MW simple-cycle steam boiler unit burning no. 6 fuel oil, ULSD or natural gas. The station also had a small auxiliary boiler for process and building heat and an emergency back-up generator.
