Photo courtesy of Ken Hayes
Five of the members of the Society of Physics Students surround David Eickler (wearing hard hat), who works at this power plant in Litchfield.
Without power for one night at Hillsdale College, many students’ lives become semi-chaotic. The night turns dead black, students lose crucial research papers and alarms reset. So much depends upon continuous power, yet hardly anyone understands fully how it works.
“This is one item we really take for granted,” said David Eickler, a shift supervisor of the Endicott Generating Station in Litchfield. “Everybody needs power.”
Eickler gave a tour of the Litchfield plant to the Society of Physics Students on November 10.
The power plant is a modern marvel. Seventy-five million dollars in the making, the 16-year-old plant produces 55 megawatts of power each second in a process of heat exchange.
First, a large boiler burns coal while suspended from the ceiling. The boiler heats pipes filled with steam to temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The coal fire will hurt your eyes it’s so bright,” Eickler said.
At a higher temperature, the steam has much more energy to release, and is piped into a turbine.
In the turbine, a series of blades are connected to an electric generator. The high-pressure steam spins these blades at 3,000 rotations per minute, which in turn spins the generator and produces electricity.
The process takes about 90 seconds, which would normally waste a vast amount of water, but here engineers have devised a way to save water.
After leaving the turbine, the steam has used up much of its energy and usually cools to just above the boiling point. Taking advantage of this process, engineers use cold pipes carrying well water to cool the exhausted steam into hot water.
This not only creates a vacuum to help propell the steam through the turbine, but the leftover hot water is pumped back into the boiler and reheated to start the process again.
Although the water keeps clean, the boiler is highly polluting because “fossil fuels are a nasty business,” Eickler said.
To combat potential pollution, the government sets standard rates for emitting pollutants.
Though standards keep getting stricter, they don’t hamper the plant’s operations, Eickler said. Plant policy stays ahead of new standards to ensure all machinery is tweaked and ready for them.
“We try to know what we’re going up against,” Eickler said. “We’re constantly innovating and trying to find new ways to meet the new emissions standards.”
The result is a power generator whose cleanliness and efficiency surprised even Associate Professor of Physics Ken Hayes.
“The power plant is sure a lot more complicated than it is in our physics textbooks,” he said after touring the plant.
Senior Jen Hawk, president of the Society of Physics Students, echoed admiration for the power plant.
“I thought it was very interesting because it was a practical application of my two academic loves: physics and chemistry,” she said.
Considering all the facets of working at a power plant, Eickler said he likes the versatility of his job best.
“It’s an ever-changing field,” he said. “A lot of people learn just one little area. Our guys learn every little bit.”