Power stations

A power station, also referred to as a power plant or powerhouse and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Most power stations contain one or more generators, a rotating machine that converts mechanical power into electrical power. The relative motion between a magnetic field and a conductor creates an electrical current. The energy source harnessed to turn the generator varies widely. Most power stations in the world burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to generate electricity. Others use nuclear power, but there is an increasing use of cleaner renewable sources such as solar, wind, wave and hydroelectric.

Engineers and utility staff usually use the female gender when referring to a power station – its working parts are perhaps regarded as a form of beached, inland, ship, as they in the past would always have resembled a ship's steam turbine propulsion equipment. There is some debate within utility and engineering circles over whether a solar array (whether roof or ground mounted), or wind farm, should be referred to as a power station, or simply as a generator. The same ambiguity applies when talking about, say, one reciprocating engine driving a 5 MW network-connected alternator; many would prefer to call it a generator, not a power station – but if the installation comprised more than one alternator/engine, or if capacity were much larger than that, the term power station would be widely accepted.

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