II — Steam driven plant auxiliaries

RELIABILITY may be set down as the most outstanding requirement of electric power station auxiliaries since, among other things, an uninterrupted supply of power depends upon the ability of the essential auxiliaries to function continuously. Thus any arrangements made for guaranteeing the operation of these auxiliaries should be appropriate to the degree of service reliability expected from the station. These arrangements for station auxiliaries involve the furnishing of a reliable supply of energy as well as turbines, motors, and accessory equipment which are free from physical defects and which possess suitable operating characteristics. Considerations secondary to this first requirement of reliability are simplicity, initial cost, maintenance expense, and economy of power.