Good Sustainable System In Power Station Essay Example

Abstract

There is a growing need for energy and environmental concern today’s climate, alternatives to polluting and non-renewable fossil fuels should be considered. As stated by Ewing et al, Electricity demand has increased due to the increase in population, it has been estimated that that an average of fifty to seventy years are remaining of all the fossil fuels based on the current consumption rate. This figure is scary, putting into consideration that by the year 2050 there will be no enough power for the industrialized machine. Therefore some changes have to be made, and renewable energy is the best remedy (Thomas et al., 2014). This paper will focus on the inputs and outputs in a power sector.
According to Green Peace India, renewable energy is a sustainable energy source from perennial natural environment. Clean Renewable energy are the energy sources that does not contribute to any kind of harmful emission to lives such as carbon, involve extractive process or radiation, or which can cause displacement of people in large scale or forest covers and land destruction. This therefore means that renewable energy can continuously be taken from the natural environment without affecting biosphere’s normal activities (Green Peace India, 2014). In any power generating plant, sustainability should be maintained at all costs so as to ensure that everything runs as expected to achieve efficiency and productivity and at the same time minimizing unavoidable problems.

A power station system consists of machinery, structures, and associated equipment for electric energy generation from other sources of energy such as hydroelectric dam or nuclear reactions (Goswami et al., 2000). A power station system has an issue with fuel consumption in the conversion devices, the fuel include coal such as generators used to generate electric power which in turn leads to release of waste such as carbon dioxide released to the environment in addition to the high cost to supply fuel constantly. In the power station lighting includes LED lighting system, low voltage lighting, fluorescent lighting fixtures and intrinsically safe light fixtures. When not installed according to hazardous location classification, it will affect power plant operators, therefore due to the high energy consumption, the cost will go up (Zahedi, & Ahmad, 2003). There is also a problem of cooling and heating in a power plant, especially in coal-fired, nuclear or the conventionally gas-fired power plant. The cooling is required to condense the steam so as to discharge surplus heat and in the case of nuclear station prevent destruction. As a result, a lot of heat is generated which can be very vital in the case of a nuclear station. Lack of enough heat needed to heat water required to heat water to produce steam for running turbines is another problem in a power station, this leads to insufficient power generation hence electricity demand will not be met (World Nuclear Association, 2014). In the power station, there is a shortage of operators who control systems that generate and distribute electricity, other functions of these operators include; maintaining turbines, pumps, generators and compressors, clean and lubricate, ordering repairs when necessary, inspecting power plant equipments; failure of these functions to be done by operators will lead to deterioration of machines and blackouts, thereby leading to high cost of maintenance in the power station because some machines can spoil thereby needing replacement (Science Buddies, 2015).
Staff in a power station includes managers, cleaners, experts in the operation of machines and other workers. In the power station, non-existence of experts for operating the machines will force the management to outsource experts to do the work which costs huge sums of money (Goswami, 2000). There is a problem of cleaners’ shortage, for instance if the power plant uses coal fuel, there will be a lot of garbage leftover even in improper locations. There is also a problem of proper management in the power plant, if the managers fail to properly manage and control their staff and co-ordinate all activities in the power station well will lead to inefficiency hence high costs of operations. If the workers fail to handle and properly use tools and machines will lead to machine breakdown and inefficiency hence more money will be used on repairs and maintenance or purchasing new ones (Consumer Energy, 2015).
In the power station, shortage of money to pay its staff their salary, acquire new infrastructure such as building new structures, renovation and maintenance of existing equipments, maintenance of the machines in the power station whenever there is need, and also for purchasing required tools and machines so as to achieve the desired efficiency. This as a result leads to high operation costs due to inefficiency which greatly affects productivity in the power plant (Roland W & Thomas B, 2013).
In a power station, lack of computers which are required to control operations in a coal power plant such as; providing alarms whenever abnormal conditions occur, track all work status in the station, provide calculation inputs from several parameters, calculations which are used in safety analysis and many more. According to Kosuke, this leads to waste of resources when human beings do this kind of work and also will create inefficiency in operations which can result in vital errors. Water supply shortage to a power station required for cooling and for heating, this will result in a lot of cost since other expensive ways will be used to provide cooling solution (Scherrer, 2013). Lack of proper infrastructure in a power station leads to inefficiency in all the activities taking place in the station, this as a result leads to low productivity hence high operation costs which are not sustainable. Transport problem in a power station is a major issue especially in a power plant that relies on coal fuel to generate electricity; this is mainly because of lack of enough skilled staff to operate the conveyer belts and trains and other activities when transporting coal from mining site to the power plant. Also if the staff working in the power plant lives far away from the plant will create inefficiency and this results in time and money wastage (Tom, 2014).
In conclusion, development of a sustainable energy infrastructure is driven by economics, climatic policies and energy security. The carbon energy sources with time are replaced by fuels with low carbon such as renewable solutions and natural gas. Energy efficiency and savings improvements are encouraged and enforced legally at every level (Hermann, 2002). Globally, this development is evident. According to Strebkov, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are in consideration of energy needs globally without accruing high environmental and economic costs. Therefore, so as to achieve sustainability in power stations all the mentioned problems in the inputs should be taken into consideration and solved, this will result in efficiency, economical and environmental benefits (Wartsila Report, 2012).

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