Coal Power: Inside the Parish Plant

- Coal makes almost half the electricity in the US and more worldwide. And most of that is called base load power, the minimum amount of electricity needed all the time to power a society. So we're here on a pile of coal Steve. - Well, we're on a pile of coal at the WA Parish Power Plant, southwest of Houston, Texas. This power plant has got over 3,600 megawatts of generation with four coal fired units that can produce enough power to power more than three million homes in the Houston area. - Three million homes. - This is one of the larger power plants in United States. - So I see trains like this on the highway, how much coal is in each one of those cars? I mean give me a feel for that. - Each car has got about a hundred tons in it. - How often do you bring a train like that through to this facility? - We have three or four a day. - And that's what it takes to? - That's what it takes, about three trains a day, to run these four units. - That's a remarkable amount of fuel. - Yes, it is. - So what's going on here? - This is how we unload the coal out of the train. Now you watch what's gonna happen these clamps are gonna clamp down on top of the car, then this whole dumpers gonna turn upside down. - Track and all? - Track and all. - You got a 24/7 operation here so that this power plant can be running all the time. - So you've got these big coal units that make what they call base load power. So they're making power 24 hours a day, seven days a week to supply the minimum power demands throughout the day. As it heats up during the day in Texas, people run their air conditioners. - Right. - A lot more electricity is used. - Okay. - You've got gas units that'll come on in the heat of the day to catch the additional power. - So we're here in command central looks like. - This is the main control room for unit seven and eight. - Tell me what happens sort of from steam point forward there. - We've got steam coming out of the boiler, goes into the front of the turbine. The turbine is made up of a bunch of blades and veins that are similar shaped to airplane wings and it causes that shaft to move. So you're turning this shaft now that's turning at 3,600 RPM. - That's cookin'. - That's how you get 60 Hertz power at home. - So 60 times a second that big generator is turning? - That's right. - Okay. - 60 revolutions in one second, it's not just this generator, it's every generator in the state of Texas that's tied into the ERCOT system, is turning at the exact same speed. And like we said earlier you can't store power so any time you turn on a light, someone turns on a light at home, that frequency on all those generators is gonna slow down a little bit until we put more fuel in the unit to pick up that load. - So what happens once that electricity comes off the backside of that generator, where's it go from there? - Off the generator, we've got giant conduits basically. Then they run out to the transformer, where the voltage coming off the generator about 20,000 volts. - 20,000 volts? - 20,000 volts off the generator but-- - What's my plug at home, 110? - Your plug at home is 110, so it's a lot higher voltage. - You wouldn't wanna touch that. - And a lot more current, once it gets outside the building it goes into a step up transformer, that's where it goes into those big power lines then it moves around the state of Texas. - [Host] Every day, 66 million pounds of coal goes into the Parish plant to power Houston. And if you live there, there's a good chance you're using it right now to play this video."