Gaseous vs. Diesel Fueled Generators

Gaseous-fueled generators are becoming more attractive for standby applications above 150 kilowats of electricity (kWE). The capital cost and thermal efficiency advantages of diesel over gaseous fuels have been moderated by the maintenance and reliability challenges of storing diesel fuel over long periods of time. Additionally, a number of recent technological innovations in implementing high-kWE gaseous-fueled solutions are allowing such generators to compete with their diesel-fueled counterparts on cost and power.

Additionally, the fact that spark-ignited engines offer improved emission profiles over compression-ignited engines—and that gaseous fuels do not pose the kinds of environmental risks inherent in diesel fuel storage—is making gaseous-fueled generators more attractive to the ever-growing number of companies looking to reduce their overall carbon footprint.

Diesel-fueled generators will most assuredly continue to serve the standby power market; no single solution is ideal for every application. Gaseous-fueled generators, however, are becoming more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly options for applications above 150 kWE.

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Featured Project: Systemax, Jefferson, GA

Systemax Inc. is a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company and leading retailer of brand name and private label products, including computers, consumer electronics, computer-related accessories, technology supplies and industrial products. Founded in 1949 in Queens, NY, the company has steadily grown over the years and now sells products across North America and Europe. Their workforce has also steadily grown and now includes over 5,000 employees.

Systemax markets their products through e-commerce websites, catalogs, retail stores and direct sales reps. You may recognize them as the face of Tiger Direct, Comp USA and Circuit City. Clients span a wide range of groups including major corporations, small-to-medium sized businesses, value added resellers, government organizations and individual consumers.

Having previously bought two 400 kW Diesel Generac Generators from Pro Power Solutions, Systemax contacted our Sales Engineer, Bruce Nettesheim for help with a backup power system for their Jefferson, Georgia location. With two new facilities coming into their building they required 1500 kW for one facility and 500 kW for the other.

For the first facility, we supplied a (3) x 500 kW Modular Power Diesel System (totaling 1500 kW) with (1) 1200A and (2) 800A ATS’s to give them the redundancy and reliability they required. Bruce Nettesheim explained, “Redundancy was the key issue for this customer. They just could not afford any power outage and our MPS system was a perfect design for this application”.
For the other facility a single 500 kW diesel generator with (1) 1200A ATS was supplied. Andrew Electric, who has installed a number of Generac’s Modular Power Systems (MPS), worked closely with Pro Power Solutions to complete the project in a timely manner. The result was a very happy customer.

See Us at POWER-GEN International

Pro Power Solutions will be attending the POWER-GEN International Trade Show, December 14 -16 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Stop by the Generac booth, #3129 and find out more about our standby power solutions.

Get to Know a PPS Employee: Cristal Fitzgerald, Customer Service Manager

Since 2005, Cristal has worked as the “gears” of the service department – doing a little of everything! She is the go to person in our service group. Cristal loves animals, especially pigs – she has some great pig trinkets on her desk. She also loves to talk about her dog Buddy, he is a pug and a cute one at that (especially in his yellow raincoat). If you know Cristal you love Cristal, she is a hard worker and truly strives to make our customers happy!