In the simplest form, a power plant is made up of the following four stages:

Stage
Function	Input energy ready for conversion	Converts fuel into mechanical energy	Converts mechanical energy into electrical energy	Delivers the electrical energy to the end-user
Example	Gasoline Diesel Fuel Natural Gas Heating Oil Radioactive Materials Biomass (Wood) Garbage	Engine Gas Turbine Steam Turbine Water Turbine Wind Turbine	Alternator Dynamo Synchronous Induction	Wire Grid Battery

This tutorial will approach these topics slightly out of order. It was designed to be followed from start to finish, however if you feel you have a strong enough understanding of any one topic, feel free to skip around (using the navigation bar on the left and at the top). In order to understand how the various elements fit together, you have to have appreciate some of the basics.

B Basics (Click Here to skip to the Basics section)
In this section, we’ll cover some important background materials like: What’s Electricity; How is electricity generated; What's Cogeneration; Electrical Power vs. Electrical Energy; Voltage & Current; Top 10 Processes for Generating Electricity; and 3 Basic Power Plant Designs.

C Generator (Click Here to skip to the Generator section)
The generator actually 'makes' the electricity.  It’s such a simple piece of technology that we often forget about it, but it is critical.  It’s basically a copper wire, coiled around a spinning magnet.  We will be dealing with this early on in the tutorial because it is the one common component in every other section.

D Prime Mover (Click Here to skip to the Prime Mover section)
The largest section of the tutorial - it’s the big hunk of equipment that you think of first, when you think of a power plant.  It’s the water turbine (waterwheel) in a hydro-electric plant, the diesel engine in an emergency backup system, the gas turbine in a combined-cycle, cogeneration station, the steam turbine in a nuclear power plant or something as simple as a windmill.

E Fuel (Click Here to skip to the Fuel section)
We will be dealing with this near the end of the tutorial.  In general, the choice of fuel is an economic or practical decision, not a technical one.  This section is full of data, charts and information about the most common fuel choices.  There’s also a section about natural gas pipelines in North America.

F Transmission/Distribution (Click Here to skip to the Distribution section)
After you’ve generated the electricity, you have to be able to deliver it to where it’s needed.  This can be as simple as running a fat piece of wire directly from the generator to a big piece of machinery, or as complicated as distributing it through the grid.  This section has charts & maps, as well as some of the basics about the grid.

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