In order to celebrate Public Power week, the Ames Power Plant wanted to take the chance to let community members learn about energy conservation and how the plant powers the city.

The City of Ames Electric Services open house featured a tour of the building and multiple children’s activities. The open house lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday.

“Our goal is to basically let people know all of the activities, all of the things that it takes to provide electricity to the citizens of Ames,” said Donald Kom, Ames electric services director.

Visitors could go on a self-guided tour inside the building. Stations were set up to inform people about various tools and technology used by the Ames Power Plant.

“Inside the power plant we have a lot of the different equipment that we’ll use, anything from test equipment to things that we would use to repair all of the different things,” Kom said.

Kom also explained how the plant created electricity.

“At this particular plant we have two coal-fired units, so we take coal that’s delivered here, we pulverize it down to a fine powder, kind of like a flour and it’s literally blown into the power plant and because it’s so fine it’s literally exploding in air. So we have a boiler, huge boilers that heat up water into steam, we take that steam then feed it through a turbine that then produces electricity. That electricity then goes out into the wires and serves all of the residents of Ames,” Kom said.

The power plant combines burning coal and garbage to create more environmentally friendly energy. The plant also safely disposes of hazardous waste, tires and appliances. According to Russ Moore, an employee at the Electric Services building, the plant is one of only four of its kind in the world and the first resource recovery in the United States.