The students of the Class XII Science Stream of Indian Public School had a splendid opportunity to go on a field trip to General Electricals on 28th May 2023. They were taken in groups to the Simulation and Monitoring Diagnostic Room, followed by a presentation at the cafeteria, then to the Training Bay and finally to the Laboratory.

At the Simulation Room, the students were briefed about the working of the company and informed about the gas turbines made there. They were shown the control systems of the turbines, its working-how the control system takes information in the form of signals from the turbines to process it so as to be read by the humans. At the Monitoring and Diagnostic area the students learned how the machines at different places across the globe were connected and monitored round the clock.

The students were furnished with all the information on the gas turbines, the challenges faced by the company as such plants are responsible for up to 40% of the CO2 emissions as a byproduct and the measures the company was taking to combat these challenges to reduce their carbon print on the planet.

The students were also informed about the technology being developed to replace the methane fuel used with hydrogen, so that the byproduct would be H20 instead of CO2.

Then the students visited the Training Bay which is responsible for the installation of power plants and providing equipment and training for the various power plants. The students were briefed on the working principle of the turbine- how chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy, steam turbines -which is an alternative to gas turbines, Aero Derivative Machines, Non-Destructive technology used to check damage in machines, Electrical Panels and Control System. At the laboratory, they were briefed on the specialized PPE used and its purpose, how material analysis is done, hard disk test, loom oil test, oil sample test, root cause analysis of the damage in equipment and chemistry of a point on the object.

The students had the opportunity to view a few of the machines like the tensile machinery, 3D scanner etc. The trip enabled the students to have an overall understanding of the working of the gas turbines and power plants.