The modern world needs energy to function. Both industry and the public at large depend on available and uninterrupted supplies of electricity to power our factories, businesses, institutions, infrastructures, homes and personal lifestyles.

Power Generation

Today, our electricity is produced from a wide variety of power generating systems both new and traditional. While alternative sources such as wind and solar power are rapidly growing, and have new and unique noise challenges, the mainstay of generation is still natural gas, coal, diesel, hydro, and nuclear. At the core of all these power sources are large mechanical systems that convert chemical, nuclear or kinetic energy into electrical energy – inevitably a noisy process.

Gas turbines, steam turbines, large-scale boilers, fans, blowers, pumps, and transformers, are the kinds of equipment typically found at power plants, and transmission and distribution stations. Due to their size and power these systems have the potential to exceed regulatory noise limits.

Power generating facilities need to be located as close as possible to the industries and homes which use that power, which often puts large noise-producing plants close to people.

Power Transmission

Getting electricity from its originating source to end users requires an elaborate power transmission grid with transformer stations at key nodes in the network, which often weaves its way through remote, rural and dense urban landscapes. In addition to transmission lines, this infrastructure also entails large transformers, reactors, and filters which produce noise both because of magnetostrictive hum, and because of the necessary ancillary cooling systems, which usually require large arrays of fans.

Noise Assessments and Mitigation Solutions

HGC has worked with power companies and their consulting teams, as well as engineering-procurement-construction companies throughout the Americas and in Europe, providing noise assessments and mitigation solutions for power generation plants and transmission networks. We have provided comprehensive acoustical consulting services in support of regulatory permits and approvals for new facility construction, plant expansions or for the addition of new processes or equipment. As well, we have addressed occupational noise exposure concerns and investigated and resolved unexpected or premature equipment failures caused by damaging vibration dynamics.

We are also leaders in the use of advanced sound intensity measurement techniques that can effectively identify, isolate and rank individual sources in a complicated sound fields typically occurring within power plants and transmission stations.