Control Room at Burdick Station

Unit No. 3 Condenser

Unit No. 3 Controls

Fuel Piping and Storage

Diesel Pump

GIUD's Gas Turbine.

Unit No. 1 Turbine-Generator

Unit No. 1 Feedwater Heaters

Unit No. 3 Turbine Generator

From right to center are the boiler controls for No. 1 unit. From center left are the controls for unit No. 2 and well field at the Platte River. Operators man Burdick Station 24 hours a day - 7 days a week.

Unit No. 3 condenser sets under the turbine. The condenser cools steam used by the turbine back to water so that the water can be reused to make steam. The water that cools the steam is also re-used.

Some of the controls for unit No. 3 turbine.

No. 6 fuel oil is used as "standby" fuel at Burdick when natural gas is in short supply. Over 2,000,000 gallons of oil is stored in tanks near the plant. Shown at left are pipes that supply the three boilers with oil.

Burdick is home to a high pressure diesel backup water pump for domestic water. The pump is started if a large storm is in the area in case there is a major electrical outage where other pumps cannot be operated. Large electric water pumps are used to pump domestic use water at Burdick as well.

The turbine and generator are on the left and the air intake for the turbine is in the middle and the right. Essentially, a gas turbine is a generator that used a jet turbine engine to turn the generator. It can burn either natural gas or diesel fuel.

A Burdick Operator carefully opens the gas valve to a burner on No. 1 boiler.

Unit No. 1 supplied all of Grand Island's electrical needs in the late 1950's with it's maximum output is 16,500 kilowatt's. Today, Unit No. 1 only produces enough power for 11% of Grand Island's peak load.

The fire in No. 1 boiler. The temperature inside this boiler can reach above 1000 degrees (F). Temperatures inside other boilers that GIUD operates often exceed 2000 degrees ( F ).

Water used to generate electricity is continuously heated to make steam. The steam is then sent to the turbine where energy is extracted from the steam and used to turn the generator. The steam is condensed back to water and is reused to make steam again.

At the left is the exciter, then the generator and then the turbine.