A stupid video I recorded at work

[onqel]

I was bored at work and recorded a clip from when we did a generator test.
The two generators were rated 320 kW 440Volts each, and our job was to test that the generators / diesel engines could deliever 10% over their maximum rated power.

The principle is to fill a tank with seawater (salty) and lower the electrodes into it until you reach rated power.. and keep people away from the electrodes

The "action" starts from 1:20 ..

Turn the volume down, the hydraulics pump is noisy

 

[Benny H]

Can you explain a bit more how this works? The water is the load? and... the lower the electrodes go into the water the more contact there is which increases the current drawn?

It's interesting.. but I'm not following how this tests the generator.

 

[onqel]

You answered the question yourself
The water is the load, and the load increases as the electrodes sinks deeper into the water. The contact potential increases and the load as well (amperes).

On this sort of jobs, we are mainly interested to figure out if the diesel engine can deliever enough power to run a generator at full load, and preferably higher.
We write down Hz/kW/Amps/Voltage as we test and we end up putting these numbers and plot it in e.g. excel to get a graphical picture of the diesel/voltage behaviour..

On the diesel engine we are interested in load vs rpm (or Hertz) .. on some ocations we have to go in an calibrate the gain/droop settings on the diesel regulator to find the "sweet spot" with respect to quick reaction on sudden loading / unloading of the system (main circuit board) .. if the speed drops too much (over 2.5/3 hz) when a big consumer is started, it's not going to pass the certification.. This can be a pain in the ass when the engine is badly maintained or is "nervous" in general..

We're also involved in testing/calibrating when the ship needs to run two or more generators in parallel ..

I work as a ship electrician.. and I'm involved in everything but the navigation system.. but I'd rather work with music

 

[Benny H]

Oh cool.. I got it right.

Now dude.. if you can make a ship work, you can make MAC AU versions of your plugins haha ...come on now

 

[Leavit]

I dont want to touch. But i want to

 

[ahjteam]

what are the engines for? cars, trucks, trains, generators/aggrigators, something else?

 

[jipchen]

Well based on him stating he works as a ship electrician, I'd guess they're for ships

 

[onqel]

what are the engines for? cars, trucks, trains, generators/aggrigators, something else?

These engines are for ships.. and their only purpose is to deliver electrical power to the ship..