Standby Power

Case History

Trucking Firm Discovers Value of Standby Power

Where:
D&T Trucking, St. Paul, Minnesota

What:
One 125 kW diesel-fueled generator set Automatic transfer switch

Application:
Standby power for all business operations

One Friday, the employees at D&T Trucking in St. Paul, Minnesota, showed up for work as usual at 8:00 A.M. What wasnt usual was that there was no power, thanks to a local utility outage. In fact, power would not be restored until the end of the day. In an ofce where all business acquiring business and following up on business was conducted via phone, the employees soon realized how much they depended on having power. The company had about 125 refrigerated trucks on the road that day hauling fresh meat, cheese, milk and wine all across the country. The cell phone numbers of the drivers were all on the computer, and there were no paper lists of drivers phone numbers. Of course, the employees were not able to charge their cell phones. Or use the fuel pumps. The ofce ground to a halt.

Distributor:
Cummins NPower

Primary choice factors:

Extensive experience with Cummins diesel engines and Cummins Onan generators Expert local service and support

Preventing a recurrence
Bob Dolle, the owner of the trucking firm at the time, resolved that his company would not be stuck in that position again. So he began researching standby generators. He knew the Cummins brand, because he and his father before him had been in the trucking business for many years and knew the quality of Cummins diesel truck engines and Cummins Onan engines in refrigeration units. He was also familiar with Onan generators and Cummins Power Generation, since that company was based in the area and also had a reputation for quality products. And the local distributor, Cummins NPower, was right down the road for convenient sales, service and support. In addition, generator set systems from Cummins Power Generation are pre-integrated, with components made by various divisions of one company. All these were major advantages to the owner of D&T Trucking.

The automatic transfer switch next to the electrical distribution panel.

One of the D&T trucks.

Oversizing the backup system

Dolle wanted a generator big enough to power all the loads and keep the business operating normally. So he and his local electrical contractor, Steve Nelson of Heights Electric, Columbia Heights, Minnesota, reviewed the trucking firms recent electric bills to determine the loads the generator would need to support. Then they oversized it, to add in a margin of safety. The resulting determination was a 125 kW generator, along with an automatic transfer switch matched to the generator.

Dolle preferred an oversized generator to a smaller unit that would have to use time-delayed circuits, for two reasons. First, because the greatest load for a generator occurs at start-up, a smaller engine could be overtaxed and not work properly, in the same way that popping the clutch on a truck can stall the engine if enough throttle has not been applied. One solution is to time-delay certain circuits, to stagger the time when some loads are picked up. But the complexity of that approach didnt appeal to Dolle. The second reason he preferred to go with a larger unit was to accommodate not only present but future needs as well.

Installation and commissioning

With his decision made, Dolle worked with both Cummins NPower and Nelson to source, install and test D&Ts new standby system. Because the building had not been wired with a standby generator in mind, the main power had to be rewired. Heights Electric did the necessary rewiring and installed the dieselfueled standby system; Cummins NPower verified the installation. With a 10,000-gallon tank of diesel fuel, D&T was poised to stay off the grid for quite a while, should the need arise.

Keeping the lights, phones and computers on and the business running
After the system was installed, Dolle relied on Cummins NPower to provide scheduled routine maintenance to ensure the system was always ready to perform. And, just as anticipated, the company did indeed experience a number of power grid outages. But no matter: each time the standby system worked exactly as intended, supplying power to keep the operation running smoothly. Sometimes, employees of neighboring businesses would come by wondering why the lights

The 125 kW generator installed.

were on at D&T Trucking when they were off elsewhere in the area. Dolle would happily explain about his Cummins backup system.

Whats next . . . a residential application

Dolle has since sold his business to another trucking company and retired from the industry. In addition, he recently sold his D&T building to the county sheriffs department, for use as a base for emergency vehicles. One of several reasons the county was originally interested in the building was its diesel-powered standby system, so the county insisted that it be included in the sale. Which changed the plan for the exurban location where Dolle is building a home. His successful experience relying on his Cummins backup system at the trucking company convinced Dolle that hell definitely need one out in the country, so hed originally planned to move the D&T equipment to the new site. With that no longer an option, Dolle is again partnering with Cummins NPower on a new diesel-fueled standby system for his 10-acre property. An OTEC automatic transfer switch has already been installed in an outbuilding.

Service beyond the routine

Finally, Dolle has a vintage portable Onan generator thats mounted on its own trailer. Decades old, it always started on the first try every time until recently. So he took it to Cummins NPower to see what they could do.

Without even a model number to start from, Mike Okonek, Service Supervisor at Cummins NPower, was still able to find new throttle linkage and also fix a problem in the wiring. Now the old unit is back in business, good as new, just in time to perform one of its regular jobs: powering the refreshment stand at an annual ice fishing contest.

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