What it is I do

As you may know I am currently interning at a power plant on the Vanderbilt University campus.  For those of you who don't "habla e-power plant-o" here is a guided tour of what I do (or what I watch guys do would be a more correct description).

 This is the main control panel.  Between the board, the computer screens there and what is to the left out of the picture we can see the measurements of most of the plant's procedures. 

Here's the stuff to the left.  This is actually a very small control room compared to a full size industrial plant, but it's good to start on.

 This is the bottom floor.  The main building is four stories.  These upside-down pyramids are the hoppers that catch the ash from the boiler.  

 This is also the bottom floor.  These are the main feedwater pumps that supply the boilers with water.  They are 700 hp motors!

 This is the second floor looking down the line at the front of 3 of the 4 boilers. 

 This is the furnace in the boiler.  1200 degrees, burning through roughly 5 tons of coal an hour- depending on the load.  

Pretty.  When I get cold in the controls room I just go out and stand by the boiler for a bit.  Warms ya right up.  

 The coal silo.  This will hold 1100 tons of coal and running at full load would last about 5 days. 

But this bloke comes every morning and delivers 25 tons. 

This is one of the turbines.  This is the guy that takes 700 psi, 650 degree steam and turns it into electricity and 80 psi, 250 degree steam to send out onto the campus.  The steam is actually their main priority.  Generating electricity is just a nice byproduct.  

And this is a turtle.