diesel infosheet
Inside a Diesel Generating Plant
There are many parts and pieces that make up a diesel generating plant. The combination of a diesel
engine, a generator, cooling systems, control system and other devices make up what’s called a generating set.
There are many different sizes of generating sets. For each diesel generating plant, the size of each
generating set is chosen based on how much electricity must be produced to meet the demand from the
community. For example, a diesel plant will need to use several large generating sets if it’s built in a community
that has a couple hundred houses, hospital, fish plant and recreation centre compared to a community that
only has a few homes and small businesses.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro uses a wide range of sizes of generating sets. Some are as small as
50 kilowatts (kW) and others as large as 1250 kW. In contrast, a small business may own a small generator as
back-up in case of a power outage which could be the size of 20 kW. The difference is their ability to produce a
number of amperes of electric current. Diesel plants have more than one generating set to meet the electricity
needs of the community where it’s operated. Hydro’s smaller plants usually have three generating sets and its
larger plants have five.
Here is a photo of a
generating set inside one
of Hydro’s diesel plants.