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A powership (or power ship) is a special purpose marine ship shaped vessel, on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource. A powership is an existing ship that has been modified for power generation, a marine vessel, on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource. Converted from existing ships, powerships are self-propelled, ready to go infrastructure for developing countries that plug into national grids where required. Unmotorised powerships, known as power barges, are power plants installed on a deck barge. These are sometimes called "floating power plants" or "barge mounted power plants". They were initially developed during World War II by General Electric for the War Production Board as a transportable large-scale power generation resource. Powerships can be equipped with single or multiple gas turbines, reciprocating diesel and gas engines, boilers or nuclear reactors for electricity generation. Bureau Veritas, an international certification agency with experience in overseeing both shipbuilding and power plant development, classifies such floating power plants as "special service power plants".〔 Only a total of about four self-propelled powerships are currently deployed around the world before the powership program was shut down, while there are over 75 power barges worldwide, including over 600 MW of generation capacity in New York City. Power barges can be built very quickly in comparison to a powership or a land-based plant. A 100 MW gas turbine power barge can be built and be ready for deployment in about three months. ==History== One of the earliest (if not the first) powership built was in 1931, the SS ''Jacona'', built by the Newport News, Virginia Shipyard and Drydock Company, for the New England Public Service Company of Augusta, Maine. The idea came to the president of the Augusta firm, when one winter a severe winter storm took out a lot of the New England major power transmission lines. The ''Jacona'' role would be to dock as near as possible to the affected area and hook into the local power grid, restoring power. During the summer months the Jacona would hook into vacation area power grids where power needs are extremely low during off season and extremely high during the summer vacation season. The Jacona was fitted with steam boilers which drove two generators which could produce 10,000 kW each.〔("A Floating Power Plant", February 1931, Popular Mechanics ) detailed article page 217 and 218〕 At one time the US Navy used its submarines when disaster hit a local community bring down the commercial power grid, this led to the idea of powerships for the US Navy, and an early US Navy powership was the , a former US Navy naval ship. ''Saranac'' was a 1942 built fleet oiler before her conversion into a powership following the Second World War to serve in the US Navy and Army. In 1957, she was sold to Hugo Neu Corporation of New York City and was used then as a power facility abroad by the International Steel and Metal Corporation. In 1959, she was renamed ''Somerset''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Mariners-The Website Of The Mariners Mailing List )〕 The first floating nuclear reactor ship was the MH-1A, in the Panama canal zone. This ship (the Sturgis) is due to be scrapped in 2015. Although the reactor and fuel have already been removed. Power barges and power ships offer a number of advantages over other forms of power plants; due to their mobility, powerships can be connected to local power grids to temporarily cover demands whenever on site power plants are insufficient or the building of new power plants will take time,〔 while dual-fuel engines on board can be powered by either liquid fuels or gas. The power barge and power ship are able to use any infrastructure available at the site on which she is required.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「powership」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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