Authorized Personnel Only - How to Start and Sync a 400,000 Watt Turbine Hydroelectric Generator 

I work for a very large utility on the west coast in their hydro electric division. We're not allowed to show anyone the insides of the powerhouses and how they work (no public photography), so this is so cool that you are able to make these videos and show people how amazing Hydropower is!

I think this finally explains a story my grandfather told me many years ago about his time working in the power plant of a cement factory in the middle of the last century. He was bringing up a generator off a weir on the river and described a dial which I now understand to be a synchroscope. Grandpa messed up very badly while trying to get it in sync with PP&L and said the whole plant shook as for a few seconds the generator looked like it was trying to rip itself out of the ground. He saw some of the big bosses running down from the front office with what he was sure would be his pink slip. Grandpa managed to spin the generator back up and get it synchronized just before they arrived and then made a big show of playing dumb, walking around and inspecting all the gauges. With everything humming along perfectly, the bosses just shrugged and went back to the front office, leaving him to, and with, his job.

"Somewhere there's a bass fisherman half a mile up the river, wondering just what the hell is going on, as some idiot is learning how to bring a power plant online"

Thanks so much for making this video! I'm an electrical engineer and I've always been fascinated with the power grid and I really appreciate the opportunity to look behind the scenes. I almost went the "Power" route out of school but chose control systems and signal processing. No regrets, but I still get a thrill seeing big systems do their thing. Thanks again!

I kid you not: here in Finland, in 2016 a drunken guy broke into a hydroelectric power plant and started pressing all and any buttons he could find. The end result was one blown up 1.5 megawatt generator. I'd love to have seen that. He should have taken a time machine and watch this video I guess!

as a PhD student in power systems, your videos keep me alive as i write my thesis

Typically when you initiate a "Start" on a hydro unit the governor will open the gate servo to a preset "Speed no load " position to roll the generator off close to synchronous speed . Excitation to the generator field can then be applied either manually or initiated automatically by a speed switch (now you will see generator AC voltage slowly building up on the volt meters) . Generator output frequency and voltage can now be matched to the bus frequency and voltage by slowly increasing the water flow applied to the turbine to adjust the frequency and the field current applied to increase or decrease generator output voltage being compared to the bus AC values . With a properly tuned governor you should be able to adjust the generator speed so the sync scope is slowly moving in a clockwise (gen freq faster than bus freq) and every time the pointer passes through 12 O'clock on the meter the generator is momentarily in sync with the bus and the generator breaker can be closed just before 12 O'clock (allowing for Generator breaker closing speed and slip frequency )synchronizing the generator to the grid . After synchronizing you can load the generator by increasing the governor speed setpoint and putting more water on the turbine . The generator speed cannot increase now as it is held at 60 hertz by the grid you will see watts increase out of the generator now with the water increase . If you were to adjust the speed setpoint down now to the point where you are not producing generator watts output you are then "Motoring " the generator but generator frequency will remain at 60 Hz. held by the grid . Increasing or decreasing the generator field current will result in Vars out , unity power factor . or Vars in condition but that is a lesson for another day. Hope this helps people who expressed interest.

Exactly what I needed to know! :) I was struggling to start my 400,000 watt turbine hydroelectric generator after a reboot. I should mail it back for a refund.

I always enjoy watching people love what they do. My wife catalogs art for an auction house, and she loves it. I am a watchmaker, and I love it. We were both 40 when we started on these respective paths. Don't give up on a dream kids! It's never too late to start something new.

Always amazed to realize, that as a plant like this connects and ramps up its power output, _all the other plants on the grid back off by the same amount_ , keeping everything in balance.

"My butthole is doing an impression of a rabbit's nose." You sir have gained a new subscriber off that line.

This takes me back to my Navy days onboard an Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7) frigate. As an Electric Plant Control Console operator, I got really good at synchronizing to "shore power" and picking up or removing the grid power. Four Stewart Stevenson V16 diesel engines capable of generaterating about 750 kW each.

During 1960s when U.K. was building big coal fired plants they had a few synchronising accidents. One unit was grid connected 180 degrees out of phase (probably an instrument fault we don’t know) the rotor was spat out of the stator and thrown out of the building. Your 100 tons of rotating mass will always fail when hit by the grid. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

I've been doing hydro for 42 years and my biggest advise is to buy a multifunction generator protection relay. My favorite these days is the SEL 700G relay. The $3-4k cost is the best money you will ever spend on your hydro plant. It will protect your generator from any fault and give you the capability of full autosync . Good luck, small hydro isn't easy!

​ @Chris Boden, I had a friend of the family that has since passed on, who was on the beaches of Normandy running and synching the electric generators on the beach after the invasion. He told of how it took a bunch of times to get the gennies to all sync up, and how they kept crashing out of lock; all while all the brass sat there waiting for the power to come one! I never really appreciated the story, until watching you start up this one... It must have been a crazy scary time! His memories live on in me, and now you, my friend!

What you want when you close the breaker is for the synchroscope to be going slowly in the fast direction (spinning clockwise). Then close the breaker at about 10 degrees from the top. This way it closes right at the top. You want it slow in the fast direction because then when the breaker is closed, the machine will take on some load immediately. If it's moving in the slow direction (like it was in the video), the machine becomes a load on the grid at first (until he started loading it by opening the valves a bit more).

I love how you talk to the machine like you're a Techpriest from 40k. The Machine Spirit must be appeased!

This is absolutely amazing. I have a very difficult time showing young PLC programmers who still don't understand the process control about peaking. This is a very fine example. Thank you.

Love these videos Chris, keep them coming. The sounds, the commentary, everything really. As a blind viewer, I love how you describe things and how the videos are produced. Can’t praise it enough. Brilliant! Keep it coming. 👍😁

This brings back memories of my electrical apprenticeship, the class was split into 4 groups and each made, from a kit, a motor with a generator stacked on top. Most of the day was spent trying to sync the 4 sets together using the old Siemans Halsky method with lightbulbs, two bright and one dim. Eventually the room was synced and the teacher was congratulating everyone and he then leaned back on the wall...right onto the emergency power cutoff switch for the room, you can imagine what we said.

7:56 minutes of awesome! I forgot about everything at work and was glued to that gauge! Even I felt relief when it synced!

I've heard although never seen anything old enough to verify that the first generators were synchronized with a light bulb prior to even antique instruments. When the light bulbs are off there is no difference in potential between the generator and bus / load. When there is it is out of sync and at fully lit would be 180 out. When it was in sync some poor sap would manually close the gear. I build and maintain engine driven generators that produce more than this little hydro plant does but everything is automated now. They all have very fast smart protection relays on them and it all works great. I can't imagine being the person 100 years ago manually closing that gear while manually syncing a large generator. Definitely would make my butt pucker up every time. I'm sure Many a person was injured or killed by accidentally synching out of phase. Less an issue if it's just an induction generator but a synchronous will not be happy at all.

All the best decisions are made in manual mode. Also love the button nameplates just being sharpie.

Things that I didn't even know that I didn't know: That powering up a hydroelectric power plant could be exciting and nerve-wracking. Thank you for sharing your job with us.

SWEET I love it when the synchroscope meter needle goes lines up with the top mark, the sync lights are out than SNAP the contactor gear close and goes online AWESOME :)

I used to synchronise 500MW coal fired units in the UK using a synch trolley. 50hz over here, - the unit operators used to hand over to the engineer to excite the rotor and take control of the governor! 🙂. Synch was across a 400KV CB onto the grid 😁. Now work with CCGT’s and total auto synch! Not sure if any of the operators would have the courage to do a manual synch! 😆. We also synchronised them with the synch scope going clockwise - pushing out on the grid to avoid reverse power trips! 😎👍

I know the feeling. At my work we used to have a 20KW UPS and a 75KW diesel generator. The UPS ouput was feeding the most important servers and uplink equipment at all times, while the UPS itself was fed by the grid under normal operation. In case the grid went down, the grid was automatically disconnected from not only the UPS, but from the entire buidling. Then the diesel generator started, and after it ran at 50Hz, it automatically switched to/fed the UPS input. So all important equipment was never left in darkness in case of a power outage. Great design. But there also was a switching panel that would allow you to connect the rest of the building to the diesel generator as well. This was a manual operation without risk (as the grid was switched off from the building). The scary part: in case the grid would come back online (while the diesel generator was feeding the entire office building), there was a LED on the switching panel that had the same job as the synchroscope meter in this video. If the grid and diesel generator were in sync, you were allowed to manually switch from diesel to grid. I never dared to do so. The two times this happend I have chosen the safe way. That is: disconnect the diesel generator before connecting the entire building to the grid again.

All INFRA players know that feeling when you activate that piece of engineering! Great job! 🤩👍

I was stationed on Forbidden Planet and was one of two that could get the Krell power station online. As I joke one day I fed the output back into the input.No one ever spoke to me again. Loved your video.

About 20 years ago I wrote a long description about starting a coal fired power plant. This was the synchronization of a 3600RPM 250MW steam turbine. Synching the machine, big or little, is always a high pucker factor moment. Hydro can be tougher because the machine is less responsive to control inputs. Bring the turbine to match the system frequency and the voltage to match the system voltage and you're were we started this discussion. Match the generator phase angle to the system phase angle with not too great of a slip frequency. (I liked about 1 rev of the synchroscope in maybe 30-45 seconds meaning that the turbine speed differed from synchronous by about 1/2 RPM or less. Most of the regular operators weren't as patient to fiddle with the control valve and the boiler conditions would change so that the turbine would speed up or slow down.) The speed governor wasn't used for startup/run-up so that full arc admission could be used to heat the inlet of the turbine uniformly. This meant that the turbine speed was controlled by hand. Not too hard as long as the boiler is under control. When the hand on the 'scope approaches the little mark at 12 o'clock put your hand on the main breaker control switch (BE sure to look at which way closes the breaker). You are now on the spot. Everybody in the control room and maybe throughout the plant will know if you screw up because the lights will dim, the floor will jump and the generator will make a noise like it just lifted a world record weight in the heavyweight class if you don't turn that handle at just the right time. People at other power plants may know it too if your machine is big enough and you screw up bad enough. At the magic moment, turn the control. The 'scope pointer should come *gently* to a stop at the little mark, the lights should not blink nor the floor jump and no giant grunting noises should be heard. Goose the turbine valve just a little to pick up some load, check that all 3 phases are carrying current and that the voltage is OK. Start breathing. The smallest machine I've synched was about 50MW, the largest was 650MW.

I have no idea how I came across your videos on RU-vid, but I find it amazing because I worked at the self same dams you are showing in your videos. I was there in mid 2010's era. This video brought back a bunch of memories. I've operated that very panel to get that generator in sync with the grid. That generator was the most reliable of the three plants I worked at on that river at the time. Messing with the Kaplan Turbine blade angles on that generator was interesting and could make for a good video if you're up to it. Finding the angle was fun because you had to utilize a stroboscope and match the flashes per minute to the RPM. However, if you jammed them into a limit, it was not fun to unjam. The process was shut down the generator, wait for the generator to completely stop, get the ratcheting socket wrench, jam the step stool into the angle switch on the panel (you can see the angle switch in the video) to engage the direction opposite of what it is jammed into, then you pray as you ratchet on that welded nut on top of the motor that's embedded into the generator shaft because once you set that thing free, the motor for the blade angle starts spinning at some gnarly RPM with your ratchet in tow, you need to dislodge the ratchet and then make a run to the panel to disengage the angle switch before it jams into its other limit. Things were all sorts of janky working there, but I enjoyed what I did. It was a learning experience. Good video though. Nice to see this equipment still in use.

This is similar to how I feel when trying to sync an isolated 1500KVA generator back into the grid when it is struggling to hold sync long enough to close the switch. Such excitement and and the mild fear that sync drops before you close that switch by hand. I’ve only been there once or twice when it was wrong, and luckily I wasn’t the one closing the switch in these instances; it’s still pretty damn exciting to see those sparks and molten copper fly haha. Great video mate, I got exactly what I came for.

"That turbine behind me WILL sync to the grid ..." -- Now that sounds like an AWSOME video. =) (perhaps better done from some distance however)

Awesome job! Didn't even need to touch the switch for the hydrocoptic marzel vanes! What skill!!!

I worked for many years in the construction industry building power stations and dams, I had never seen the process of starting up a turbine that was a very interesting video.

I worked as assistant operator at Bull Run Hydro plant in Oregon back in the 1980s.The governors and controls were all hand operated .We were told to never overspeed at start up!The plant was built in 1913 what an experiance!

I always wondered how you go from running at no load to generating power, that's pretty sweet that you just let er rip!

Many years ago (circa 1950) I spent several hours over a couple of years watching my dad operate a power plant (Horse Mesa Dam) on the Salt River, AZ. Memory is fading, but it took longer than this power plant to start up the 25 HZ turbines. Now, of course, they are remotely operated from another location in Phoenix, AZ, vicinity.

I used to work with a guy who's job in the Navy was to supervise the connection of his Battleship to the Shore supply, this required close monitoring of the phase or major fireworks were the result .

I seriously love the genuine excitement. I'm a cloud architect and you had me on the edge of my seat. Just awesome!!

This is easily my favorite video on all of RU-vid. Bless ya, Chris.

Thanks for letting us watch ! Made me think back of a visit we (a bunch of control engineers and technicians) made to a large coal fired powerstation. A visit to the control room was included and while we were listening to the chief engineer one of our buddies made a bee line to the console were the turbines rpm were controlled. And wow did that chief move quickly ! Don't know if it was his years on the high seas (most of them came from a merchant navy engine room job) speaking, but I've never heard someone cursing so eloquently. Mind you, all in good fun, we wouldn't dream of messing with the GigaWatts they were handling there. That was way before all the modern windturbines were put up, and even then the grid was a big 'cat-and-mouse' game so to speak, hate to think what it must be now, even with the aid of powerful computers etc.

This triggered a couple of old memories. The first is when Ed Laxson (owner of Laxson Electric) told us about the time when he as an apprentice helped re-wire a generator after the city's engineer came in drunk and flipped the switch when it wasn't synced properly (back in the "three light bulb" days of synchronization). It ruined the generator and they had to "re-wind" it. Except that the windings were copper bars and he had to climb into the generator and bend the bars using a torch. This had to have happened sometime in the late '40s. The other thing was a friend of mine who bought the powerplant on the Duck River in Columbia, Tennessee back in the '90s or early '00s, and spent a year trying to get Duck River Electric to agree to buy his power. He finally got approval the day before the Duck River had (yet another) massive flood which completely overtopped the powerplant. I did get to tour the control room before this happened. It was pretty cool. The flood convinced him to get rid of the powerplant.

This is the video that got me instantly addicted to your channel.

As a guy that started out doing pipeline construction. Moved to building and renovating fresh water and sewer pump stations, along with water treatment plants. This was exciting as fuck to watch. So interesting. I've always wanted to build a dam. Hopefully one day!

In general it is a good idea to get close to synchronisation and to add some frequency to the generator before trying to sync. Make sure the synchroscope is going only clockwise. This ensures, that the generator won't fall into reverse power right after synchronisation. Reverse power will trip the protective relay quickly if there is one.

Thanks for posting this. I've been in power control centers where they had the synchronous indicator, though the ones I saw were more like a cats-eye indicator than a meter. But I never happened to be there when they were phasing and connecting power. Very cool.

Incredibly cool! I work with semiconductor active front end units that sync to the grid the easy way, by just generating an AC wave at the correct frequency. It's fascinating to see the old way of doing things. Certainly much more exciting :D

This video autoplayed while I'm multitasking at work, because I couldn't hit stop in time to continue my playlist of short circuiting power lines (they fascinate me) but man I'm so glad it did! Your commentary and enthusiastic energy is infectious, I love it!

Love it! Have never seen a hydro plant come up and sync to the grid before!!

Love it. I had a 12-71 Detroit generator that was rated for 350KW, 3-phase 240 and it was LOUD too! 😂 Like all Detroits it leaked oil everywhere, but that Dry-Sleeve made rebuilds easy!

Wow, this takes me back. A long time ago I was a Merchant Navy Engineer. I loved bringing a ships alternator online. Having started the engine (750hp diesel) I would then tweak the governor to match the revs to the already online alternator(s) as indicated by the frequency gauges. Having got the revs (frequency) very close I would then start nudging the governor to very gently match the phase. This was done by watching the phase clockdial. This guage showed the phase angle between the two supplies, When the pointer was at the top the phase angle was zero. But the rotational inertia of the diesel was an issue, so I only closed the connection if the pointer was moving very slowly through zero. A lovely sense of achievement would then be had through knowing that I had successfully manipulated many hundreds of kilowatts that needing very gentle finessing. I suppose the only, but very big, difference is that I only had to worry about the very predictable rotational inertia of a diesel engine. I didn't have to worry about thousands of tons of water slopping about. Thanks for sharing the experience.

This is a great video. I’ve heard of this process, but actually seeing it makes it more real. I have an interest in understanding the whole story of what happened at Chornobyl NPP. Part of that story has to do with understanding not just reactor side of the equation but also electricity generation side, specifically the turbines. One of the issues that a specialized crew was brought in for was to measure the vibration of the turbines.

Really cool seeing how this is done. Also surprising to me how accurate the game "Infra" was at simulating this process. The game missed out on the water surging issues, but seems to have gotten the rest right. Infrastructure is cool.

Just found this vid, I've heard about the syncroscope before but it's fun actually seeing one in action at a power plant.

As a power plant operator my self this was pretty exiting even tho this is a much simpler setup than ours. 👍

Good catch of the null, I've paralleled 1500KW Onan diesel generators to the grid at just a few degrees out of phase... major pucker factor! Well done Chris.

I like the guy's enthusiasm for his job. It made me smile.

I just watched the startup of a 100MW gas turbine generator last week and it had the same meter and two lights. Funny how things don't change. This is possibly the oldest gas turbine generator still in operation, late 50's. It made a lot more noise than yours.

I'm no electrical engineer. Electricity is pretty much just magic to me. I have never once thought about what a power plant operator might be *doing* at work. And I've gotten by so far, thank you very much, without knowing that power plants had to sync with the grid like this. And yet... this was one of the most dramatic scenes I've ever seen play out. Amazing. It's probably no coincidence that RU-vid showed me this random video while I was going down a filmmaking-and-drama video rabbit hole

I used this video as a reference for my roleplay character bringing a coal-fired steam generator online for the first time. Great stuff, and thank you for making this video!

Love to hear the tone of the hum changes everytime the frequency increases. Actually in 1:36, you already get the European frequency

6:54 this really felt like the equivalent of two trains passing each other at speed and you managed to hop from one to the other.

Not hydro, but have done that for a bank of 4 400 KW diesel sets, so don't quite have the same bounce. To get the power pickup and prevent the reverse power drop, I was taught to run the generator a little fast by about 1/2 hertz. This way you get the slow 2 second rotation clockwise, and close about the 55 minute mark, so the phase pulls in, then as it was fast, will produce power upon closing, then open up the power. Learned this while in the Navy for going off shore power. Going back to shore power, the input to the syncroscope is reversed so the rotation is still clockwise by reducing the speed until shore power is about 1/2 HZ fast in relation to the diesels, then running parallel, so the shore power picks up some load, then throttles are set lower until the power off diesel drops to nearly zero, then the breaker opened for a no glitch transfer to shore power. Great video. Check with the manufacture about the sync process and if you can run slightly fast (clockwise) and close on the approach to 12:00 for a good sync with some pick up of load and prevent drop out from reverse power. Some newer equipment has protection to prevent closing out of phase in addition to reverse power, and over current drops.

Note that at 4:20 the frequency is at 58 hertz vs. the necessary 60, a difference of 2 hertz, I.e. the beat frequency. In conjunction, the sync gauge is rotating ‘slow’ at 2 rounds per second. This is a marvelously done narrative! It well bears rewatching.

Thanks for sharing that content and your enthusiasm with us.

Awesome Job! That final kiss of the valve actuator did the trick. The MAGIC moment when the the synchroscope sat on zero . . . NOW ! I shouted outloud. Ha ha, I couldn't help myself. Terrific video. Congratulations! Next, valve full open, and you're online! The most honest excitement I've had in quite a while. Many thanks!

That's great fun! I used to synchronize my rompin' stompin' 30 KW gas burning 240/120 1phase genset using a couple of light bulbs and a bulldog switch. Doggone that thing made the most horrible sounds if I didn't catch it just right.

As an electrical engineer and general scientist, I have just learned more from this 7:56 video and the audible enthusiasm than I might have learned from trying to be a hydro engineer via schooling. Than you sir, for a explanatory and working job well done.

Every 6 months or so I come back to watch how excited this guy gets when he synchronizes the generators :)

I've seen lots of technical and theoretical side of this on RU-vid this is the first time I see someone who actually do it live! Thanks for the video! By the way I'm a software engineer not related to this field just curious about it 😁

That’s a nice little plant- there’s definitely something special about old hydro equipment. Would that plant happen to be associated with an old mill or factory by chance? I’ve worked on a couple small ones about that size that were a similar configuration.

A big diesel electric generator in a trailer truck gets put on line for the first time. Somewhere there was a mix-up in wiring the phases or the synchro scope. When the breaker was closed, the whole trailer rolled over onto it's side.

This really puts into perspective how much power an EV needs. The newest DC faster chargers are 350kw (350,000w)

I love how excited every person who does this gets when they nail it even though you basically have to nail it every time.

My grampa was an electrical engineer working on hydro plants in Canada during the 70's and 80's during the height of the building related to the Columbia River Treaty. Back before they had automatic systems that could do this startup and sync, it was done the same way as you show, except the generators were 500MW units. He experienced what happens when an operator connects a turbine to the grid while the frequency is off by 1-2Hz. The bang as the unit is forced into sync could be heard and felt throughout the entire dam structure.

Really enjoyed this! When you close the generator breaker you have seconds to bring up the power so you don’t fall off the grid... is this because of a reverse power trip on your protection relay? I was gonna ask why no synchronizer but I see the complexity that the river hydrodynamics adds to this operation.

I have never seen anything like this before, and it got me so HYPE when he synced it to the grid! Infectious energy and a really clear demonstration of great engineering

Nice video Chris. Have you explained to the viewers how the amber lights work? Might be interesting to explain how two "different" AC circuits can work together and how we "don't" want them to.

I have absolutely no idea how like, 90% of the power grid but this? Well, it explains things well for starters, but also REALLY cool to watch. Brilliant stuff! The technology that humans can achieve is truly magnificent.

"oh mom.. i got intenet again... :-) " i was going like "carful now.." and im on the other side of the planet LOL!

Great! I used to work for Scottish Hydro-Electric as their telecoms manager. We had 50 hydro stations across the country, all but one remote controlled via ‘my’ network of microwave, fiber and leased lines! They ranged from small low head plants like yours through to around 10 MW. Only the biggest - a pumped storage 300 MW plant was manned, the others were dispatched from a central generation control room (and backup)

You need to wait until you get a slowly moving sync scope in the fast direction! You better not close the circuit breaker until that scope is just 5 degrees before 12 o'clock synchronization on that sync scope. I couldn't tell if this unit has an automatic synchronizor and all you did was control the speed of the generator. If the generator circuit breaker closed out of synchronization it would be detrimental to the generator's whole end turn windings and spider (rotor).

honestly, this was beautiful. Down to the explanation, to the noise the machines make, also insane to think it can all fail within one switch.

this video is a demonstration of what am I studying right now as an electrical engineering student, thank you

As a ship’s engineer we do this a lot. Sometimes once or twice a watch (a watch is normally 4 hours) instead of matching the speed of the water in a River you are dialing in the speed of a Diesel engine. Same principle though. Though most ships have automated syncing and buss ties now, almost everybody learns to do it manually as you have done in the video. Cool video.

Watching this only for the purpose of beeing able to start one of these up if the shit hits the fan and im a zombie-outbreak survivor.

Magic! Had a friend who was doing early automatic valve control for Hydro, and there was a fault in the compiled software code and caused a full open on the valves and some 'panic'. What had been forgotten was that he'd only been allowed on plant because the hydro frow is self limiting, unlike steam plant. So throwing the emergency stop wasn't the right answer;-)

No matter the industry, we all talk to our control panels like we are trying to get our date into the back seat of our Dad’s sedan at the drive in.

I'm a marine engineer and it's funny how this is exactly like starting up and syncing our generators, even this panel looks exactly the same. The only differences being instead of a diesel engine there are tons of water flowing through a turbine, and instead of a governor controlling a fuel rack - a huge valve. Damn...

Im not an authorized person and im here.

In high school I visited a huge hydroelectric power plant. I went down beneath the river on the same level of the turbine shaft. Nice to see all those old school controls.

This is AWSOME!!! Thank you for letting us into the powerplant with you!

That was fun. Thanks for the video. At first I was thinking, why is the freq wandering like that, but than like you explained, you are dealing with a pulsing wave of water. Fun with the physics involved there. At lease with an engine driven generator, it'll groan in to phase. When you're dealing with literal TONS of moving water...OOF, that could get real ugly and expensive if something goes wrong.

How much do you have to pay to get to do that? Cool video, great explanation about having to wait on the wave. I can only imagine what it is like to be flipping to those switches while the water rushes behind you... But you definitely brought the experience to 2d. Going back to watch it again.

I work in the energy sector, but in IT. Once, a technician told me that back in the old days, they would manually sync our large hydro plants to the grid, and these have a power output many times the mere 400 kW = 0.4 MW of the comparatively tiny generator in the video. If not done at the exact moment, a huge rumble would go through the whole building, and of course it would also cause a lot of wear & tear on the machines.

Man that was kind of terrifying.

Reminds me of bringing a SSTG (Ships Service Turbine Generator) on an aircraft carrier online with the other SSTG or syncing with shore power. Connect them when not synced and the SSTG does some bouncing around.

...So I gotta know. Who do you know that lets you run rampant in their power plant? XP

Well that's the BEST light hearted commentary of a serious action I've seen for quite a while. Magic stuff 👍