My big dream?

Question

My dream is to one day own a Powerplant that has an output that is enough to power all of Los Angeles and New York during peak hour when everyone has their air conditioners running full blast.

How big would this coal fired plant have to be? How much will it cost me? And how much money can I make off of it?

Answer 1

On August 2, 2006, Consolidated Edison Company of New York set a record for peak electricity demand, reaching 13,141 megawatts.

For the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, the summer peak demand was 6102 MW, set on July 24, 2006.

Let's combine the two and round it up to 20,000 MW.

Cost of a coal plant:
The following numbers are based on the best integrated plant technology capability. These are capital costs of a new facility:
A plant put in service today costs $1000 - $1300 per kW.
In 2010, a new plant will cost $900 - $1000 per kW.
In 2020, a new plant will cost $800 - $900 per kW.


At $900 per kW, your plant(s) will cost you $900 * 20,000,000 kW = $18B

How much coal? A 500 MW plant today uses around 250 tons per hour under full load. 250 tons of coal / 500 MW = 1/2 ton per MW.

You're going to need 10,000 tons of coal per hour during the peak days.

Railcars: In 2003, the average carload carried 111.4 tons of coal, up 10% from 1993. 10,000 / 111.4 = 90 rail cars per hour!


As for how much money you can make, remember the laws of supply and demand. You will be bidding against every other power producer to furnish power to your customers. If you are not the low bidder, your plants might be sitting dormant. If you WERE the only generator in town, then perhaps you can raise your prices. If you set them too high, then the government might step in, call you a monoply, and dictate your price.

Other observations:

As an engineer you don't want all your generating capacity at one location. What if there is a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster that damages your facility? Since you're relying on coal, what if the rail supply lines are damaged? (A train derailment could burn down a critical bridge) If you're receiving coal by barge, what if the river locks are out of service? Floods, mechanical breakage, etc.

If you're under contract to furnish power, you could easily lose all your profits (and then some) buying power from others to meet your commitments. What if there was a fire at your power plant? That could take it out of service for a VERY long time.

You will also need redundency. Equipment will break and also needs to be taken out of service periodically for maintenance. You will need extra generating capacity to account for these conditions -- even on the peak days.

The largest coal-fired plant in the US today is the Scherer Power Plant in Georgia. Its output is rated at 3,300 MW. You will need six of these!

"The largest coal-fired plant in the world today is at Nanticoke, Canada, with a capacity of 3,900 MW. Coal-fired power plants of 500 MW are the norm today and many are currently under construction around the world."

Transmission Infrastructure:
NYC and LA are roughly 3000 miles apart. How do you plan on getting the power to these two locations? Or are you just using NYC and LA as a measure of your plant's generating MW capacity?

I've now probably spent more time on your term paper than you will. Please let me know how we do on this homework assignment. ;o)

Answer 2

Five years ago, when I began Living My Big Dream, I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted to make enough money to be financially free and never have to worry about bills or my car breaking down or an unexpected illness again. All in all I thought it sounded like an admirable Big Dream – and one shared by many others.

But no matter what rational I used or what fantasy life I dreamed up, I couldn’t bring myself to make the pursuit of money the most important mission in my life.

Answer 3

Well, the combined loads are in the tens of thousands of megawatts. You can't burn coal in either locality, by law; these cities are largely powered by oil and nuclear power, with California favoring natural gas. Los Angeles gets much hydro power from Hoover Dam, and New York City buys lots of hydro from Quebec.

Note that this means that there are a lot of power plants in each area. Although there are economies of scale to be had in very large power plants, we've discovered that it's best to split even very large, concentrated loads like these among many plants. This helps reliability when there's a fuel crisis (i.e., a coal strike) or when a boiler tube fails, which they do on a regular basis.

Note also that electric power is a commodity whose price is determined by complex factors, among which are the whims of the state public utilities commission and the current market prices, which are re-negotiated every hour. Thus the profits are not quite as unlimited as one might think: you can make more money selling shoes or software.

Having said that, it should also be noted that the electric power business is fascinating, with the biggest machines and the largest systems in the world. It runs the whole rest of the world, and the people who keep it going are a special breed. Study, and learn about electric power: you don't have to own the power plant to run it.

Answer 4

it truly is continually extra suitable to dream large. Dream about your activity in life. Take the mandatory steps to attain it. -Get a laptop and Pen/Pencil -identify the first web page what your Dream/activity Is -In outline style Write all the steps it is going to Take To Get There Your activity will be to own a 5 movie star eating position -between the steps will be to attend Culinary Arts college -One will be to paintings for a eating position as an apprentice as a Chef -One will be to paintings interior the authorities element of a eating position and do team supervision, hiring/firing/discipliary action -One will be to paintings interior the inventory element of a eating position, and do bookkeeping and economic recording -One will be to paintings interior the promotion element of a eating position and position classified ads, get new agency in, marketplace the eating position in spite of each and every thing of this, per chance your "activity" has replaced. perchance you now no longer favor to have as a lot duty as you once idea replaced into your purpose. it ought to no longer look as proper because it regarded. per chance your new purpose is to be "The draw close Chef" of a 5 movie star eating position. You had a huge Dream, you made targets and steps, you watched your plan, you probably did not enable your self down! You discovered your actual activity!

Answer 5

Today my Big Dream is to live a normal life. To learn how to cope with the specific challenges I face on top of the struggles we all face everyday. I will continue to post about ways to make money online and off, how to live frugally, and how to experience life to the fullest no matter what gets thrown at you.

http://www.laplantcompany.com/

Answer 6

I've heard of kids dreaming to become ball players. Presidents. Movie Actors. Famous Artists. But, power-plant owners? This is a sad and odd dream, indeed.

Answer 7

BIG NIGHTMARE, invest in the Ice capade, then if your to hot with your idea ,you can always go up there and cool off and won,t costs you nothing for an automatic AC.

Answer 8

instead of running it offf of coal use genarotors that run on e-10 and solar power it might cost you a couple thousand maybe about 40 acres and probably 1000,000$

Answer 9

Do your own homework.