No
matter what the industry, be it oil, chemical or gas, you can guarantee
that somewhere in the plant there will be some form of power generation such that in the event of failure from the
main grid, the process of refining can
continue uninterrupted. Larger companies and refineries will generate all
of their power requirements and at
times of low demand will export their excess power to the
grid, helping to bring the consumer cheaper
electricity. Then of course there is theproblem of isolated installations such as offshore oil rigs.
Where do they get their power from?
To those in the know, that would
be a stupid question, but for those of you who visited this
site for information, then let me inform you that it
would be highly impractical to have electricity
pylons across the sea bed! Of course they
generate their own electricity. Finally, there
is the main grid. What is that I here you asking?
Well that is all those smoking chimneys that
we call power stations, generating electricity
for the consumer forming a grid network across
the country. You may have heard the term
"Switching the grid". When the lights dim in your
house, perhaps at a time of peak demand or a
fault on the network, they will switch to another
grid either to isolate the fault or to import extra power.
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