Glossary
Power Plant Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential power plant operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key power plant operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in power plant operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Black start
- Restarting without grid power.
- Boiler
- Produces steam.
- Clearance
- A lockout for maintenance.
- Condenser
- Turns steam back into water.
- DCS
- Distributed control system that runs the plant.
- Feedwater
- Water pumped into a boiler.
- Generator
- Converts mechanical energy to electricity.
- Heat rate
- Fuel used per unit of electricity.
- Load
- The amount of power demanded.
- Megawatt
- A million watts of power.
- Ramp rate
- How fast output changes.
- Rounds
- Scheduled equipment inspections.
- Trip
- An automatic shutdown.
- Turbine
- A machine turned by steam, gas or water.
- Turnover
- Passing information between shifts.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Power Plant Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Power Plant Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.