- see Section 24.3.3.6. However, 24.10 Mobile power plant the plant may also be made 'office compatible' by being mounted in line with the switching equipment in what at first sight appears to In some instances of difficult turn-round of plant replacement, or the be a cupboard or filing cabinet (Banfield, 1984). catastrophic failure of an existing one, (especially in the case of A.C. engine-generating plant), mobile plant is of great value. Such plant (Nightingale, 1983) will desirably have similar performance and facilities to that of the permanently installed one, except of course 24.8 Power management systems that it has to be capable of withstanding the forces of transportation, and be suitably silenced to satisfy the constraints imposed by Power systems, comprising several plants in a single building, achieving acceptable environmental standards. Plant ratings from which may well be unattended for significant periods ranging from just a few watts to many kilowatts can be designed, and for the very hours to weeks, or even months, require suitable alarm and surveill- largest, perhaps as much 0.5MW to 1MW, the valuable feature of ance systems to indicate to maintenance staff the status and availa- the high power to weight ratio of the gas-turbine driven generator bility of the individual plants or the collective systems. Limited tends to come into its own. information may be conveyed by audible or visual signals, and these can be physically extended as necessary, and in many cases this may be judged as being perfectly adequate. 24.11 Power plant accommodation However, the availability of the ubiquitous microprocessor now provides a capability for an operator, either locally or in a remote The accommodation used for power plant will often require features centre to obtain detailed information not only on current status, but specific to the plant in question. It needs to be carefully considered plant history (Coppinger, 1984). Such systems can also be interac- in its own right, and not as is all to often the case