A visit to Idamalyar

Blogathon- Count down # 23

  I have returned from the industrial visit to Idamalayar power Generating station with my students. So, today I’m thinking about sharing some of the interesting things about the trip.

            We were 47 people in total. 40 students+5 Faculties+ 2 Drivers. We all set out in our College bus( it’s not a less thing. Airconditioned, videocoach-Marcopolo). Students were so much excited about the trip. This is my first industrial visit as a teacher. I have gone for some I.V’s before, but that all were when I was a student. So, this is special for me too.

            As you can expect, the girls were (Our’s is a girl’s only college) enjoying their freedom. They were singing and dancing and making so much noise. We teachers let them enjoy the trip fully, and made some control over them whenever needed. (ha,! I’m talking just like a teacher. ! smiling when remembering my own college days, and our feelings towards teachers when they try to control us).

            The destination is not so far from our college. After going the 3/4^th of the way, the road was becoming  more and more narrow. Then we are in the jungle. Hey, we were travelling through the jungle. Somebody told that, there is chance of seeing some of the animals. We have seen some little monkeys, on the trees on roadside. Our Good luck to say, no any Elephant thought about coming between our way, and make things difficult. But, watching the road becoming narrower again,we were thinking, that road finally may shrink to nothing and we will lost. But, thank God, somehow we made it!. Our big bus managed to reach there. Idamalayar Power Station.

            There was a police check post. Without prior permission, nobody is allowed entering the respective area. We had their permission letters ready with us, and that was not an issue then. Cheers!! We passed our first milestone.

            Then after some formalities there, we have arranged the children in four different groups each group with 10 students, and 1 faculty. Our HOD Mam also accompanied the first group. Then we entered the power station. Each group is allotted with a guide to make the tour of the place.

            So, about the power station- Idamalyar Power Generating station is a hydro electric power station, which uses the water stored in the Idamalyar Dam (4km from Generating station). The total generating capacity is 75 Mega watts, with the help of two generators of 37.5 Mega Watts each. The turbines used were  two ‘Francis turbines’.

            There is only one floor above the ground , which is called as ‘ Service Bay’. It is the top most floor (the rest of the 3 floors are under the ground). The servicing or maintenance is carrying out on this floor. At the time when we reached, one of the generator is under maintenance, and the other was not made operating at that time (That will be made working, when the authorities tell them to do so, as per the energy demand). As, one of them is under  maintenance, we could see the huge parts of the huge machine, that we have read in text books. Students looked so much surprised on the huge size of the generator, which occupy one complete floor, the very next floor under the ground- the “Generator Floor”. We could enter inside the machine, that was on maintenance. I felt a bit suffocation, as we went down and down from earth. The next floor is ‘Turbine floor’- containing two Francis type turbines.This floor also manages the cooling and insulation of the machines and  the bottom most floor does the draining of the used up water.

            I will explain the working of the generating station briefly. How, electricity is generated in a hydro electric power station. The water reservoir (Dam) is at a higher level compared to the turbine level. The water at a high head have a high value of potential energy. (the potential energy of a steady thing increases with increase in height). The water is carried to the power station through two large steel pipes called ‘penstocks’. This water is directly given to the turbine floor, which in turn rotate the turbine wheels. The turbine is rotated making use of the energy of the flowing water. This turbine rotates the rotor (rotating part in the generator). The rotor is rotating inside a magnetic field, inside the stator windings( stationary part). Whenever a conductor moves in a magnetic field, a potential (voltage) is generated. Thus, in this way electricity is generated in a generator. A generator is a machine that converts mechanical energy (which causes rotation) in to electrical energy, whereas a motor is a machine which converts electrical energy in to mechanical energy.

            The water, after using its energy should be made to come outside. As the water comes in the floor under the ground, there should be some special arrangements to drain the waste water (waste-in the sense, the water left after using the energy in it). This left over water is stored a well. the water from the well is pumped to outside where it is known as "tail race". The generators also need some cooling arrangement as the working parts got heated during the operation. The cooling is provided by arranging some oil flowing through small tubes,that surrounds the copper parts. The heat of the parts are first transferred to the oil and and then to water through which the oil tubes are passed finally. There are automatic arrangements for the controlling of this cooling and insulation.

            All the four groups again gathered on the ground floor after visiting all the floors. My students were very much curious about all the things there, and were asking questions and making notes, as they have to submit a report about the I.V.

            You may be knowing that, the voltage generated in every generating station is 11Kilo Volts. And this 11 KV is stepped up to the high transmission voltage using transformers. Idamlayar power station has got a transmission voltage of 110 Kilo Volts. There are a total of 6 transformers, with 3 transformers for each generator. They are equipped on the ground floor, outside the building.

            The power station also take supply from other source, for the working of the entire station, when the generators are idle. When the machines starts generating voltage, the supply source is replaced by the supply that generated by the station itself.
             Before we left the place, we got a chance to see one of the machine working, and the water flowing to the tail race. 

            Thus, our visit to the power station is over. Neglecting some of the problems we faced (2 of the students was about to faint), everything was okay.

            Then we set out for seeing the ‘Idamalayar Dam’. We had planned to have our lunch there. We have been said not to have lunch inside the bus. But, when we were just about to start, there came, without any prior notice, the rain.. It got started raining heavily, and we all scattered to get a shelter. Most of the students got in to the bus, and we faculties got another shelter, which was opened for us by the security staffs there. Then we all had our lunch between that, heavy rain. Thank God! There was no any lightning or thunder (I am so scared of both).

            Then we got the call from college that, we have to reach college before the scheduled time, as all the college buses has to leave at that time because of some unexpected thing. So, we have left our idea to stay some more time, to visit another dam called “Bhoothatahan kettu”(English translation- ‘Beast Dam”). The return journey was also nice. Students were not ready to return so fast. They wanted to stay some more time. So, they were enjoying the return trip to the maximum.

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            I didn’t expect such a long post. So, I’m winding up here. Pardon, if you find this a bit boring..

Sikha