Engines used for power generation are an integral component of a growing number of utilities across the African continent. These include diesel-fuelled engines for power generation in remote areas or where there isn’t a reliable source of mains electricity, along with gas engines operating on fuels such as natural gas, or biogas from sewage works and landfill sites.
If your engine isn’t working it is very likely you will be using revenue from your facilities operations. From a utility perspective if your generators aren’t operating and you have no reliable grid connection critical infrastructure will not function leading problems in wider processes. Are you fully informed about the things you must consider when selecting your power generator provider? This article will explain different factors involved in ensuring high levels of equipment availability and hence how to maximise long-term revenues.
Engine Selection
Depending upon the fuel you are using for your generator, this will influence your choice of technology provider. Diesel and natural gas are expensive fuels that need to be used efficiently to save costs. For renewable fuels such as biogas, there is only a small selection of gas engine brands that are designed to operate on it. Investigate the track record of the suppliers you are evaluating. How many engines do they have operating on the fuel in the field? You must also investigate the quality of the ‘balance of plant’ supplied – supporting items of machinery that facilitate the engine’s performance. These include control systems, fans and radiators to dump excess heat, exhaust gas heat exchangers, dehumidifiers and gas boosters.
Aftersales Support
The first maintenance consideration is to understand the skill level of the engine service engineers. Combined heat and power (CHP), or cogeneration engines are sophisticated pieces of power generation equipment. Engineers need detailed understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering and engine control systems, along with the process logic for heat recovery. Ensuring the provider of your power generation equipment is certified to have reached high levels of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) training is an important phase of due-diligence of your supplier.
Commissioning
The commissioning of the generator is an important element in ensuring your machinery is operational to your project schedule. Does your CHP supplier need to bring in specialists from the OEM or do they have their own dedicated in-country resource? Any delays in getting this support might delay your project and result in lost revenues. In addition to this consideration are the commissioning engineers familiar with the local network and if grid-parallel are they able to support with local grid synchronisation requirements.
Maintenance Agreements
Your engine supplier may offer you a maintenance agreement. This is typically a good way to transfer risk from the owner of the facility to the maintenance company. When you compare prices from suppliers ask yourself are you comparing apples with apples? Is the fee transparent or are there standing charges? If the company is providing an availability guarantee, what physical and financial substance is behind the organisation to back this up?
The Cost of a maintenance agreement might include the following components:
- Spare parts for scheduled maintenance – i.e. the parts that need to be changed at specific times as per manufacturer’s guidelines – and for non-scheduled maintenance – i.e. the parts that needed to be changed if something breaks down;
- Labour – the physical resources to conduct the maintenance procedure;
- Oil – gas engines consume significant amounts of oil to facilitate smooth operation. The oils are often highly advanced in composition tailored to the demands of a reciprocating engine.
- Field service capabilities are important in ensuring that the intent of a maintenance contract is realised. How many service engineers does the company have? How many consumable parts do the service engineers hold in the field and what is their location? Are the engineers supported by remote monitoring? This enables an engine-service company to diagnose faults remotely and dispatch engineers to site if needed.
Availability of parts
The generator equipment company needs to have ready access to the required spare parts for the units. Investigate what levels of parts stockholding your service company has; visit their facilities to understand their offering fully. Also are the parts that are being supplied high quality OEM approved components or are they pirate parts – lower quality non-approved spares? The latter will open you up to operational risks and expose you to lost revenues in the future.
In summary, to maximise equipment availability, ensure high quality components are used, backed up by engineers that understand local legislation and use a service organisation with comprehensive local coverage backed up by in-country parts stockholding.
