Thu 27 Mar 2008
“…hello, is this tech support?”
Unknown to myself until today, it appears that the United States Bureau of Reclamation operates many of the nations hydroelectric power plants. As such, they also make available the Facilities Instructions Standards and Techniques (FIST!) manuals which are a wealth of interesting information. While I was initially looking around to find some good information on synchronizing dynamo generators, I think that their Abnormal Operations Generic Technical Guidelines for Power Stations manual is quickly becoming my favorite. The most interesting part starts with section 4.0 (p. 12) where the bureau outlines generic, step by step, guidelines for responding to various abnormalities in the plants operation. Although the contents are fairly straightforward and the messages clear, the name of the document is quite formidable. Be sure to check out the rest of the FIST manuals if you like this sort of information.
( vol1-12.pdf )
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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 am
It’s funny that that is the picture you always see posted of a control room. Walls covered in knobs and meters and blinking lights. Alas, the modern control room is completely different. It’s all on computers now, with monitors for the display. Really boring.
Our local shell refinery upgraded to a Foxboro IA system in the past couple years.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
They probably got this picture taken in the 70s and thought it was so good that they should keep using it. The only reason to keep such an analog control room around, that I could think of, is that the controls would be more resistant to electromagnetic radiation and would still operate during the forthcoming nuclear war with the USSR.