Powerhire were contacted as a point of emergency by one of the largest ethical food retailers in the UK. Their standby generator at their Essex composite Distribution Centre had incurred an oil leak and, due to the critical nature of a continuous power supply, an immediate repair was necessary and a temporary generator was required as a matter of urgency.
This 320,00 sq ft Distribution Centre, utilising a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles, delivering temperature controlled, frozen and ambient products to 3,200 stores simply couldn’t afford to be without power, hence the need to ensure all sources of power production were functional.
From the moment the call came into the 24hr control room Powerhire arranged a mutually agreeable time for our Technical Sales Manager to attend site and discuss the requirements with the client as the temporary hire was more complex than the simple supply of a rental generator.
The Distribution Centre’s standby generator is set up to export power to the National Grid as part of a scheme called “Flexitricity”. When required by the National Grid the standby generator is called into action to generate the required power for it’s own premises and any additional power produced above that is exported back to the National Grid. Therefore the standby generator requiring repairs needed to be isolated before the rental generator could be installed.
After liaising with the client, Powerhire’s Technical Sales Manager was informed that the existing mains and standby generator control panels control the building’s power via two circuit breakers. He recommended a super silent 1,500kVA rental generator to act as the standby generator and a remote auto mains failure [AMF] control panel to control the two building circuit breakers. Needless to say this needed to be undertaken with extreme expertise without removing power to the very busy Distribution Centre. A schedule was agreed for the delivery of the temporary power and for our Engineer to carry out the isolation of the existing standby generator, installation of the rental generator and AMF panel and then the commissioning of the system set up.
Powerhire’s Logistical Team delivered the rental generator and cabling to site just before the weekend and installed the cables ready for connection. Our Engineer returned to site at the weekend and isolated the site’s standby generator. He connected the temporary load cables via the rental generator’s circuit breaker. The existing circuit breaker controls were disabled to ensure that the site power was not removed from the Distribution Centre and the temporary AMF control panel was installed. At a specified time the client gave our Engineer the opportunity to carry out a mains failure test to prove the performance of the temporary control system. The test was successful and the building was left with a fully automatic Mains Failure System to control the rental generator should it be called into action.
