How Does A Steam Generator Produce Electricity

The steam electric power station is a power station in which the electric generator is steam driven.

How does a steam generator produce electricity.

Each steam generator can contain anywhere from 3 000 to 16 000 tubes each about 75 inches 19 mm in diameter. A steam turbine generator works by heating water to extremely high temperatures until it is converted into steam then the steam energy is used to rotate the blades of a turbine to create mechanical or rotational energy. Steam electricity is usually produced in a steam turbine generator that is an impulse or reaction turbine. They transfer heat from the primary reactor coolant to the secondary side to produce steam which then powers turbine generators to produce electricity.

In a turbine generator a moving fluid such as water steam combustion gases or air pushes a series of blades mounted on a shaft which rotates. A turbine converts the potential and kinetic energy of a moving fluid liquid or gas to mechanical energy. Water is heated turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator after it passes through the turbine the steam is condensed in a condenser the greatest variation in the design of steam electric power plants is due to the different fuel sources. The high pressure of the steam pushes on the many angled blades of the turbine causing the shaft to rotate.

This mechanical energy is converted to electricity by using the power form the rotating shaft to turn an electrical generator. The pressure of the steam acts as a force to rotate a turbine which will produce electricity inside of a generator. Instead it uses the mechanical energy supplied to it to force the movement of electric charges present in the. Electricity can be generated by steam by using a steam turbine generator.

It does not include the efficiency loss in the combustion chamber and boiler inconverting the chemical energy of the fuel to heat energy in the steam nor does it include the efficiency losses incurred in the generator if the turbine is used to generate electricity. In commercial power plants there are two to four steam generators per reactor. The turbine being built in the image may generate up to 65 megawatts of electricity. Steam generators sgs are large shell and tube heat exchangers containing several thousand tubes.

This rotational energy caused by the high pressured steam turbine is used to generate electricity from an attached generator. Each steam generator can measure up to 70 feet 21 m in height and weigh as much as 800 tons. It is important to understand that a generator does not actually create electrical energy.