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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 (transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its storage, using for example, the pumped-storage method.
The mechanical power needed to assist in this production is provided by a number of different sources. These sources are called prime movers, and include diesel, petrol and natural gas engines. Coal, oil, natural gas, biomass and nuclear energy are energy sources that are used to heat water to produce super-heated steam. Non-mechanical prime ...
Charge carriers (free electrons and ions) incoming with the flow are then separated by the Lorentz force and an electric potential difference can be retrieved from pairs of connected electrodes. Shock tubes used as pulsed MHD generators were for example able to produce several megawatts of electricity in channels the size of a beverage can. [13]
For example, the development of computers meant load flow studies could be run more efficiently allowing for much better planning of power systems. Advances in information technology and telecommunication also allowed for much better remote control of the power system's switchgear and generators.
The decisions ("economic dispatch") are based on the dispatch curve, where the X-axis constitutes the system power, intervals for the generation units are placed on this axis in the merit order with the interval length corresponding to the maximum power of the unit, Y-axis values represent the marginal cost (per-MWh of electricity, ignoring the ...
Hugo K. Messerle, Magnetohydrodynamic Power Generation, 1994, John Wiley, Chichester, Part of the UNESCO Energy Engineering Series (This is the source of the historical and generator design information). Shioda, S. "Results of Feasibility Studies on Closed-Cycle MHD Power Plants", Proc. Plasma Tech. Conf., 1991, Sydney, Australia, pp. 189–200.
The greatest variation in the design of steam–electric power plants is due to the different fuel sources. Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric power plants, waste incineration plants as well as many natural gas power plants are steam–electric. Natural gas is frequently combusted in gas turbines as well as boilers.
Electric power, like mechanical power, is the rate of doing work, measured in watts, and represented by the letter P. The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric power in watts." The electric power in watts produced by an electric current I consisting of a charge of Q coulombs every t seconds passing through an electric potential ...