Interview
Mentor: Eduardo
Essential question: Which practice is most efficient when generating electricity for my developing society?
Because some plants still have original equipment, the best practice would be to upgrade and modernize hydroplants. That takes a lot of money and planning.
Reflection: Interesting, I am gonna look into the hydroplant advancements recently. This answer connects me to my first annotated bibliography and graphic organizer. This really helps.
Mentor: Eduardo
Essential question: Which practice is most efficient when generating electricity for my developing society?
Because some plants still have original equipment, the best practice would be to upgrade and modernize hydroplants. That takes a lot of money and planning.
Reflection: Interesting, I am gonna look into the hydroplant advancements recently. This answer connects me to my first annotated bibliography and graphic organizer. This really helps.
1.What is the fastest the hydro power plant can produce in a day? How often and why would you stop generating electricity?
Start-up time from stand-still to full on generating at this plant would be about one minute or two. Because we have the public downstream and erosion issues we ramp our generators slowly over time giving the public plenty of warning and time to get out the water. We generate non-stop on our house unit to provide constant flow for the river. Our big units come on once, twice or sometimes non at all. It all depends on the schedule that is placed by SEPA. Reflection: This shows me that there are some reasons for limiting the startup time and the generating time frame of which the general and bigger units run.
2.What areas are covered by the electricity you generate? Are there other power plants generating?
We have three lines that go out of our switchyard. One is for shoal creek, another for Buford and the last one for Cumming. Yes.
Reflection: It seems just one power plant can cover a lot of power for two to three cities, (maybe more). The power of hydro power plants are a lot bigger than I thought. They show promise and it seems there is an easier ability to make hydro power plants versus others based on the fact that there are more in just one region of Georgia.
3.What kinds of resources are most efficient for generating electricity?
Water for generating power, skilled people in the powerhouse to keep everything running smoothly.
Reflection: Workers are still of use in power plants. Even more so, they are needed in the power plants for supervision and repairs. It seems I will focus a lot on hydro power, but I hope to look at other resources for generating electricity. I assume that there are a lot of aspects that go into generating efficiently, but the resources seem most important despite those aspects.
4.Do you know of any research being done to improve hydro power? What may be the next best way of generating electricity from our lakes?
Personally no. I can only assume companies that have R&D work on more efficient turbines, better oils/lubricants, advances in metallurgy and fabrication.
Reflection: R&D means research and development, so it seems these are the aspects of generating efficiently in a generator, and that there are R&D studies being done to help advance these.
5.Now a days, with advancements in technology, would it be more beneficial to be a mechanical or an electrical engineer? Could both work in a power plant in the future? Which would be of higher demand? (not just in the power business, but in general)
In my opinion, I think there is room for both disciplines with all the technological advancements. Both can work in a powerplant. You are generating electricity so I would give an edge to an electrical engineer. There will always be a demand for electrical and mechanical engineers.
Reflection: Seems in the field I am looking into. There are more needs for electrical engineers, but yet again, a mechanical engineer can easily work in the power plants like that of an electrical engineer. I guess it is based off experience, but I infer instead that both mechanical and electrical engineers will always be needed in this field of study, but they may have different rolls.
6.How much has america grown towards being more sustainable in energy generation and usage?
America has grown into sustainable energy. In 2002 we used about 9% and in 2013 we were at about 13%.
Reflection: America is definitely growing. I hope to find a bit more information on sustainability in America, but this is good to know that we are growing as a country.
7.The idea of the generator has always been of interest to me. Are there any other ways of generating electricity other than the generator?
Yes but they are inefficient (faraday disk generator, dynamo)
Reflection: This answer interests me, because I have never thought of these forms of generating electricity. I may want to look into these topics of study as well. They may not be efficient, but it will show the growth on technologies for generating electricity.
8.Do you know of any new ideas and/or research that may be coming up to help sustainability in society?
I’m not aware of any.
Reflection: I will need to find some in my sources. I know I already found some in my source about advances in hydro and tidal wave power.
9.How important is the hydro electricity in our society? How much do we use per day?
It is very important. Hydro projects provide recreating, flood control and power generation for the surrounding areas. Since a hydro generator can be started up so fast, hydroplants can respond to power needs on demand. The last number I saw was that it accounted for 6% of total electrical energy and 46% of electrical energy from all renewable sources.
Reflection: Hydro power must be a valuable renewable resource in America. Hydro plants respond quickest, so that shows the reliability of hydro power plants. They also have many other uses and attributes. (Controlling floods and recreating) Hydro power is indeed very important.
10.In what direction do believe that society is going when it comes to sustainability and efficiency of our generators? Do you know of any experiments or leaps in research that could help with the goal of sustainability?
I think the intention increase green energy is there. The problem is that it’s hard to get off fossil fuels. To upgrade the efficiency of generators cost a lot of money. You have to consider design, manufacturing, disassembly costs, down time, labor costs, etc. I don’t know of any personally.
Reflection: This is very informational in to the factors that depict the advancements of sustainability growth in society. I think leaps and experiments will be found in my sources. I already have one in the source surrounding hydro power advancements.
Start-up time from stand-still to full on generating at this plant would be about one minute or two. Because we have the public downstream and erosion issues we ramp our generators slowly over time giving the public plenty of warning and time to get out the water. We generate non-stop on our house unit to provide constant flow for the river. Our big units come on once, twice or sometimes non at all. It all depends on the schedule that is placed by SEPA. Reflection: This shows me that there are some reasons for limiting the startup time and the generating time frame of which the general and bigger units run.
2.What areas are covered by the electricity you generate? Are there other power plants generating?
We have three lines that go out of our switchyard. One is for shoal creek, another for Buford and the last one for Cumming. Yes.
Reflection: It seems just one power plant can cover a lot of power for two to three cities, (maybe more). The power of hydro power plants are a lot bigger than I thought. They show promise and it seems there is an easier ability to make hydro power plants versus others based on the fact that there are more in just one region of Georgia.
3.What kinds of resources are most efficient for generating electricity?
Water for generating power, skilled people in the powerhouse to keep everything running smoothly.
Reflection: Workers are still of use in power plants. Even more so, they are needed in the power plants for supervision and repairs. It seems I will focus a lot on hydro power, but I hope to look at other resources for generating electricity. I assume that there are a lot of aspects that go into generating efficiently, but the resources seem most important despite those aspects.
4.Do you know of any research being done to improve hydro power? What may be the next best way of generating electricity from our lakes?
Personally no. I can only assume companies that have R&D work on more efficient turbines, better oils/lubricants, advances in metallurgy and fabrication.
Reflection: R&D means research and development, so it seems these are the aspects of generating efficiently in a generator, and that there are R&D studies being done to help advance these.
5.Now a days, with advancements in technology, would it be more beneficial to be a mechanical or an electrical engineer? Could both work in a power plant in the future? Which would be of higher demand? (not just in the power business, but in general)
In my opinion, I think there is room for both disciplines with all the technological advancements. Both can work in a powerplant. You are generating electricity so I would give an edge to an electrical engineer. There will always be a demand for electrical and mechanical engineers.
Reflection: Seems in the field I am looking into. There are more needs for electrical engineers, but yet again, a mechanical engineer can easily work in the power plants like that of an electrical engineer. I guess it is based off experience, but I infer instead that both mechanical and electrical engineers will always be needed in this field of study, but they may have different rolls.
6.How much has america grown towards being more sustainable in energy generation and usage?
America has grown into sustainable energy. In 2002 we used about 9% and in 2013 we were at about 13%.
Reflection: America is definitely growing. I hope to find a bit more information on sustainability in America, but this is good to know that we are growing as a country.
7.The idea of the generator has always been of interest to me. Are there any other ways of generating electricity other than the generator?
Yes but they are inefficient (faraday disk generator, dynamo)
Reflection: This answer interests me, because I have never thought of these forms of generating electricity. I may want to look into these topics of study as well. They may not be efficient, but it will show the growth on technologies for generating electricity.
8.Do you know of any new ideas and/or research that may be coming up to help sustainability in society?
I’m not aware of any.
Reflection: I will need to find some in my sources. I know I already found some in my source about advances in hydro and tidal wave power.
9.How important is the hydro electricity in our society? How much do we use per day?
It is very important. Hydro projects provide recreating, flood control and power generation for the surrounding areas. Since a hydro generator can be started up so fast, hydroplants can respond to power needs on demand. The last number I saw was that it accounted for 6% of total electrical energy and 46% of electrical energy from all renewable sources.
Reflection: Hydro power must be a valuable renewable resource in America. Hydro plants respond quickest, so that shows the reliability of hydro power plants. They also have many other uses and attributes. (Controlling floods and recreating) Hydro power is indeed very important.
10.In what direction do believe that society is going when it comes to sustainability and efficiency of our generators? Do you know of any experiments or leaps in research that could help with the goal of sustainability?
I think the intention increase green energy is there. The problem is that it’s hard to get off fossil fuels. To upgrade the efficiency of generators cost a lot of money. You have to consider design, manufacturing, disassembly costs, down time, labor costs, etc. I don’t know of any personally.
Reflection: This is very informational in to the factors that depict the advancements of sustainability growth in society. I think leaps and experiments will be found in my sources. I already have one in the source surrounding hydro power advancements.