Biggest starter ever!! 1100 ci 12V92 screaming Detroit diesel starts a 30,000 hp jet generator!

#detroitdiesel
#jet
#generator

[kimmer]

It's not a jet engine. This is a Frame 5 GE Heavy duty single shaft gas turbine generator that runs at 5100 RPM and through a gearbox turns a generator at 3600 rpm. I installed and serviced GE Frame 3's, Frame 5's, Frame 6 and Frame 7 gas turbine generator drives.
I can't tell from the outside but my guess is that this is a simple cycle Load Peaking version of Frame 5 unit that puts out 24 Megawatts.

The diesel engine starting units I saw all had Detroit 12V-71 twin turbo 600hp engines. Are you sure its a 12V-92? Some very old ones used 350hp Cummins V-8 engines. I have had tons of these units apart and have casings 3-6 inches thick, the turbine and generator rotors each weigh several tons, and there are no aircraft parts in them at all as compared to a ''light weight'' aero derivative GE LM2500 which was based on a DC-10 jet engine.

This particular gas turbine can be remotely started. It has black start capability with the diesel and can be readied to be put online with no external grid power available. Some are electric motor started and some have steam turbine start. What you hear at the end of the video is pretty much like it sounds at full load. There is no thunder!

That exhaust stack at 1:30 has turned blue because of massive amounts of hot air at 1000 degrees F coming out of a 13x13 foot stack. The diesel is inside the accessory cab which has the 5 black radiator inlets toward the right, and the round fan housing on top.

The turbine air inlet is the stack with the snow on top. The generator cab is on the far left. The Accessory, Turbine, and Generator and Control cabs were designed to fit through railroad tunnels throughout the world. They are easily set on a massive concrete foundation where they are bolted down, piped, then aligned, and all of the external pieces are added. It takes about 3-6months to put one together. Fun fact...it has 2 spark plugs. They retract from the combustion liners as the compressor discharge pressure builds up.

I blacked out the entire East side of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela long ago when one unit was down for maintenance and the other was at full load. I was behind the Speedtronic control panel and closed a panel when a sharp edge shorted out a wire and tripped the unit off line. The Hotel at Mene Grande was pissed off at me. Thanks for the memories. I hope you don't mind a few corrections!

[patriot]

Imagine it’s perfectly quiet and you mistakenly camped nearby thinking it was gonna be a relaxing weekend

[johnrossiter]

Detroit Diesel two strokes are not just noise generators but supremely reliable and dependable engines. My favourite engine of all time.

[JFinnerud]

Noise generator starting a jet generator. Epic!!

[kingofthepod]

I like reading the comments telling stories about professionals past experiences with these. I'm a year out of welding school and hoping to have memories like these one day.

[hobbesip]

Love these sorts of videos. Big Detroit Diesel and turbine engines, enough output to power a medium sized town. Love the hidden infrastructure that maintain our world.

[thebigokie._]

WOW! The 12 cylinder Detroit is a pretty strong generator itself.

[Kendallian]

We have a Pratt & Whitney Jet (and it's an actual JET engine) with a similar output. It has an air start supplied from a 450psi reservoir. From the time I push the button, it will be synched and on-line in 8-9 minutes and will autoload to up to 24 MW's depending on the ambient temperature. We use water injection for NOx control. There used to be two of these P&W jets at my plant, but one was removed in 2004 and not returned due to permitting issues (we're in the middle of a big city). For 40+ years they ran on Jet "A" but were converted to run on No. 2 ultra low sulfur distillate a few years back. The jet gives us black start capability.

The plant's prime mover is a GE 7F gas turbine which powers a 175 MW (nominal) generator. This runs on either natural gas or the same No. 2 oil as the Jet. We're permitted to run the big machine on liquid fuel up to 720 hours a year. The exhaust from the CT is used to make steam in a HRSG which in turn runs a 1300-200psi Back Pressure Steam turbine which supplies steam to a large district heating system.

[tcmtech]

*Fun Fact* This is where all the EVs actually get their power.

*Edit (Thanks for the upvotes for this silly thread. )
Now, dance my pretties, dance! 😋

[barondugger]

I came for the video, but stayed for the comments! Wow!

[FlatBroke]

I maintained 12v149 Detroit’s as ships generators for years. Slept many nights above three of those quad turbo/twin blower monsters...

[drthik]

It's a very cool experience to be in the control room hearing that Detroit scream then the shrill turbine sound.

[madmax]

Absolutely love the sound of a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel going flat out, especially a 12.

[RANDOMNATION]

When I was going through automotive trade school in N.E. Ohio during the late eighties. I worked at an industrial radiator repair business. We re-cored those massive industrial radiators used in these supplemental generators. The radiators alone can weigh several tons. That's when I learned about waterless coolant. It's awesome stuff. It doesn't expand when it gets hot like traditional antifreeze, meaning you don't need a high pressure cooling system to keep the water, like in traditional water mixed automotive antifreeze, from gassing (boiling) because there isn't any water in it. When you don't have to also make the radiator a pressure vessel, it significantly decreases unit cost and increases the units life. I now put 'Evan's' brand waterless coolant and a 3 psi radiator cap in all of my vehicles and I haven't had a cooling system problem since. When radiators and heater cores are constantly being expanded under pressure, they eventually fail. Especially modern automotive radiators with 'plastic' tanks. It's awesome stuff. It was made for industrial applications but now, You can just buy it right on Amazon. I heard about Evan's 9-10 years ago finally being available to consumers and I've been using Evan's Waterless Coolant ever since. I swear by the stuff.

[freedomrider]

You KNOW somebody is out there right now thinking, "How can fit this under my hood?" Thanks for the vid, the sound of sheer power!

[JohnSmith-qiqs]

We used to have a Pratt and Whitney Twin PAC 40 MWe at our power plant. It could remotely start a go to full load in three minutes. We almost always locally manually started it for summer peak loads. Overspeed testing was really cool!

[AndreZA]

Very cool, some serious power! Now now you got tree huggers all upset, but least they are warm 🤣

[MO-vrjg]

That’s what is required on the grid when the renewables don’t generate.

[jeanettewest]

I worked in Prudhoe Bay in the warehouse delivering parts all over the ARCO side (BP had the other side), all three Flow Stations had GE LM1500 turbines compressing the gas being separated from the oil before being sent to the Gas Injection Plant for compression up to 3000 psi to be injected back into the dome. Each Flow Station had a Frame 5 generating electricity for the Station, they are huge. We had several LM1500's in the warehouse in their cans ready to go out if necessary. The scale of everything up there is staggering.

[ratspd]

Our local utility has two 50MW (I believe) units about a quarter mile away from our small power plant (University). One day they were doing maintenance and had a gas leak which blew out all of the walls of the building. It didn't kill anyone thankfully, but the pressure wave was so large it went around or over our 30, 000 ton coal pile and into our turbine room, then slammed into our control room door like someone kicking it as hard as they could.