What does it imply when we say 210 MW power plant, is it to say that it will generate power of 210 MW per hour

Question

What does it imply when we say 210 MW power plant, is it to say that it will generate power of 210 MW per hour

Answer 1

210 MW is already a rate, 210 MJ (mega joules) of energy per second.

So the term MW per hour is meaningless, like saying a car moves at 60 MPH per second.

Correct terminology is "generates power at a rate of 210 MW"

.

Answer 2

210 MW plant indicates the rate at which the nuclear plant generates its energy.

210 * 10^6 joules / sec is the rate at which this plant will generate energy.

Answer 3

MegaWatt (MW) is the unit of Power which is the time rate at which work is done or energy is transferred. So 1 MW automatically means 1 MegaJoules (MJ) per second.

The rate of electrical use at any moment is measured in watts.To know how much energy you're using you have to consider how long you run your appliances. When you run a 1-watt appliance for an hour, that's a watt-hour. When you buy electricity they charge you by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). When you use a 1 kilowatt appliance for 1 hour, that's a kilowatt-hour. So a generation of 210MWh has no meaning, only consumption of electrcitiy is charged in kWh. A 210 MW Power plant generates 210MJ of energy per second, saying 210 MW per hour is factually incorrect.

Answer 4

Watts is a unit of power.  Power is an instantaneous derived dimension.  Power over time is energy and as such generating 210 Mw consistently over a 1 hour period will result in the generation of 210 Megawatt-Hours of electricity.