Syncing multiple generators

[Cowboy Billy]

Ok I have never tried this but it came up in a disscussion on my tractor form when I was posting about my engine.

By Bill S

Cowboy I worked in thew Aleutians installing Radar. I worked on Project Bluergrass. We had 4 White Superior diesels at each station. The main station at Cold bay had 5 engines. We ran the engines under a 10 pound head of steam. We had banks of calrod heaters. You were to run an engine at least at half load. If less than half or you had more than 1 engine on line and the were at less than half you were to cut in 5 KW at a time till you reached at least half load. We had heat exchangers to provide domestic hot water, other het exchangers to provide hot air heat in the radar and communication rooms. There was a heat exchanger to provide hot water heat in the office and lining space as well. Over the stoves in the kitchen there was a steam fire extinguisher for grease fires. At the far end of the rec room there was a heat exchanger to provide replacement air for that lost through the exhaust over the stoves. On the roof of the engine room there was a steam turbine that cut in at 12 lbs. It drove a fan in front of a radiator in to which steam was introduced at 14 lbs and a vent system that vented steam at 15 lbs. This was in 1959. AT&T designed for the Air Force. Man that was the most efficient thing I was ever able to conceive. We had two 2 or 3 hundred thousand tanks at the beach and 2 40 thousand gal tanks at the site with 2 500 gal day tanks
You would pump from the beach in to the 40 00 gal tanks. Then whe necessary pump in to 1 500 gal tank. From that you would run it through a centrafuge to remove condensation, sand or welding slag so tht only claen oil hit the diesels. When you changed lub oil it was over 60 gal at a time. We had 2 lub oil tanks. You would run it through another centrifuge from on e tank to the other. Samples were sent back to a lab and had to give them how many gals you had. Then a report and the correct additives were sent you or an order to dump it was received. When we had a dump it I took it to the near by indian village and it was used for fuel. This was the most effecient system I ever dreamed of. I don't remember ever venting to the atmosphere except on a test. If we needed more steam we added an extra engine or if theload was low enough an extra calrod heater. There were 5 in each bank and each one was 5 KW. Lots of luck on what you are doing. I heat my house in Franklin entirely with wood. I have 20 acres of wood and will not live long enough to run out. I admire what you are doing but with your job wonder what will happen when you are gone. In my case I pitched the pipes to drain them and add antifreeze to the traps.

Billy After that long convulated discussion I gave you before I must mention cycles. All if not most AC clocks run on cycles. We had two clocks in the engine roon. One was calibrated from the radar and daily if niot more often calibrated to WWRL the national standards. The second clock was run by AC off the diesels. WQE would goose up RPM or hold back on the RPM to keep the two clocks in sync. Today with the digital clocks on Micros and TV's I don't have any idea whee they get their cycles from could be from the line vo;tage or could be from an internal clock. Boils down to the fact that to accurately tell time you may have to fight with RPM. As far as speeding up your engine to cover more load you might let the governor have more room to put the gas to it to give more tourq and not more speed. More speed is good in DC but gives more Cycles in AC. If I have thourghly confused you give me a pm and we will work it out.

By George W

Bill,

It has been many years since I worked around the big Superior and the slightly smaller Atlas, both running alternators, but they had the advantage of line power to keep pace with and were mainly to keep demand under control when starting big motors... some as large as 300HP. They ran in parallel with the power grid.

The tricky part was to have them exactly in phase when connecting them together with the line. You can easily imagine the explosion if the big knife switch was thrown when they were out of phase.

There was a bank of light bulbs wired between the two systems that would be lit when the phases were opposite and not when the phases matched. When the speeds were slightly different, the lights flashed. The trick was to watch the flashes slow down as the speeds came closer to matching. When the flashing slowed almost to a stop, the knife switches were thrown exactly when the lights were out. Once locked in to phase they couldn't change.


By Bill S

George we didn't have to worry about cyncing with the grid. There was none. We were the only AC with in a couple of hundred miles. We had to use that same watch the lights trick when we put a second or third engine on line. They locked in cync with the load each other when you had them together. You would speed up or slow down so that the lights blinked slowly and when they went out hit the breaker button.
In the indian village near by (port Heiden or Mesik) Henry Carlson had a generator. He put a gallon of gas in every night and the whole village had lights. If no one else put any in gallon gone lights out. I understand things have changed since 1969 and the Village moved in land because of tidal waves and they have power and telephone. Times change.

Hope this helps out some

Billy