One of two "house" generators. These are 3 megawatt units and supply all the needs of the plant itself including starting the main units' fields. Only one is needed at any time. The other one was shut down when I was there and I was told it could be started any time. Note in the foreground the speed governor for the house generator. It serves the same purpose as that on the larger main units, and has also been retrofitted with electronic controls. One difference here is that the handwheel can be used to set the speed of this machine. From this control machine, a shaft extends through the floor to the turbine room, where it moves the bellcrank of the house turbine. the whole system is beautifully made.The topmost piece here is the DC exciter. This can be used to start the plant from nothing. This top section actually excites the next section down, which is the exciter for the 3 megawatt unit itself. The plant keeps batteries charged as well for restarting this. This exciter section is not in use and the brushes were removed for the time being, i.e. the batteries.Nameplate for the house generator. note 327RPM as opposed to 112.5 for the main units.
