Thursday, 22 September 2016

Train your staff on maintenance for long term power generation success and minimal downtime

Whether you rent or buy, maintenance is crucial to keeping your equipment running. We see many operations lose power for a variety of reasons, and more often than not it’s because of something preventable.

If your company relies on portable power plants, it’s important to know exactly who is responsible for ensuring the power stays on. Do you keep a separate maintenance staff? Is your staff properly trained?

If you don’t have a separate staff just for maintenance, who will carry out routine maintenance and repairs on power equipment? Are THEY properly trained?

It’s always worth revisiting. Power equipment failure can be life threatening in some cases. If you’re unsure how current your maintenance staff is, then chances are it’s time for more training. Technology evolves quickly.

NETA Standards and Specifications

Is your staff educated on standards and specifications for testing new and in-use engines?
The InterNational Electrical Testing Association (NETA) serves the electrical testing industry with certifications and education programs. You can purchase the standards online – click here.

Power Safety and Switching Operations

It’s important to keep equipment running, but nothing matters more than safety. Is your staff trained on safety and switching operations for your power equipment?

Safety measures are often built into the equipment, but the best way to ensure those safety features are effective is with regular maintenance and checking.

Call RLN Energy For Current Safety and Maintenance Training

From power transformers to power cables, our training staff can get your maintenance crew up to speed and up to date. Let us train your staff on maintenance & safety for long term power generation success and minimal downtime.

Call us at our headquarters just outside Edmonton, AB:

780-991-8575



Sunday, 24 July 2016

EFFICIENCY AND ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS OF CHP SYSTEMS

Combined heat and power systems (CHP) integrate the production of heat and power into a single process that’s highly-efficient and environmentally-friendly. This process – also known as cogeneration – offers many benefits for municipal, industrial, commercial, and even residential facilities.

Here’s a closer look at CHP, including how it works and its many benefits:

How It Works

CHP is a combined heat and power system that provides both electric power and heat from a single source. Most electric utilities produce heat that isn’t used, but instead is sent into the cooling water, or into the atmosphere along with other greenhouse gases and pollutants.
This process wastes nearly two-thirds of the fuel’s energy, while a CHP system recovers almost all of the energy it produces.

CHP Benefits

CHP systems provide a number of benefits compared to conventional electricity and thermal energy productions, including:

Efficiency

Because CHP systems recover much of the wasted heat, they typically achieve efficiencies of up to 80 percent – and more.

Environmental

CHP reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants because it uses less fuel to produce each unit of energy output.

Economy

Because of its high efficiency, CHP can save facilities considerable money on energy bills, while also providing a hedge against electricity and cost increases.

Reliability

CHP is an on-site generation source and can support continued operations in the event of a disaster or grid disruption.

RLN Energy Services offers power generation training services specializing in the electrical and mechanical industries. RLN is available for consultative services and can best recommend the best power system for your worksite.


THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTING & REPAIR IN THE MAINTENANCE OF CAT GENERATORS

Purchasing a CAT generator and operating it is only the beginning of a full service cycle with RLN Energy Services. A service and training contract is absolutely crucial to the success and long service life of your generator sets. Our goal at RLN Energy Services is to provide you with a generator set, the training and the service to support a successful installation and long service life.

Testing Services

Vibration, thermal and ultrasonic testing services serve to protect your investment in a CAT generator set. RLN Energy Services offers all of these important tests.

The purpose of vibration testing is to determine if there are any issues with your rotating equipment. Depending on the readings we receive, we can tell what type of damage has occurred. Often, we can use the readings to isolate the damage down to a specific bearing.

Thermal imaging is another tool that we use to troubleshoot generator sets. We can find things such as loose, corroded and over-tightened connections by noting an abnormally high temperature. This temperature is due to increased resistance in the wire. Temperature differences can also be used to identify three-phase imbalances, failed components and more.

Ultrasonic testing is analyzing sounds on the higher end of the spectrum to identify problems with rotating equipment. It is possible to detect air/vacuum leakage and bearing failure among other issues.

Training Services

The most important part of a field service and maintenance contract is the training of your own maintenance staff to correctly diagnose and repair your generator set. We advise investing in a power generation training service. The ideal training program starts with classes taught on site by one of our instructors that cumulate in a field exercise on your equipment.

Additionally, training is the best way to add value to your employees and in turn, your company. Outside of the obvious cost savings, a well-trained technician is less prone to injury due to safely performing maintenance and start-up procedures.

Give RLN Energy a call today to see how we can help you keep your power generation equipment running!

Source URL: http://www.rlnenergyservices.com/the-importance-of-testing-repair-in-the-maintenance-of-cat-generators/

Cleaner Fuel For a Healthier Industrial Economy

Green technology is a buzz term that has been getting thrown around in industry for quite some time. In the industrial power generation sector, this usually comes down to the benefits of diesel versus natural gas engines. Caterpillar natural gas engines are some of the cleanest and most cost efficient engines with the best expense to horsepower and emissions to horsepower ratios on the market. These engines provide numerous advantages over diesel engines as well. Another point that separates CAT from other engines are the numerous technological advantages they provide for engine selection and set up as well as superior serviceability.

Diesel Versus Natural Gas

Natural Gas is attractive to corporations and individuals that want to use a fuel that provides lower emissions than diesel. The typically natural gas engine provides anywhere from 14 to 21% fewer SOx and NOx emissions than diesel, which is a rather large difference when considering the volume of industrial emissions there are. Outside of lower emissions, Natural gas is a cheaper fuel to utilize than diesel in most situations. It takes approximately 126.67 cubic feet of natural gas compressed at standard conditions to have the same energy content as 0.88 gallons of number two diesel. When back calculating cost savings, even with a reduced energy density in comparison to number two diesel, you have approximately 50% savings when utilizing natural gas over diesel. This cost savings is amplified in the current oil market due to natural gas prices that have failed to recover while crude has steadily made a comeback.

The CAT Advantage

CAT engines are some of the easiest to service and operate with customer support that blows other manufacturers out of the water. However, there is a major advantage cat provides that others do not; Electric Power Specsizer and Gas Engine Rating Pro [GERP] software. The Specsizer software uses proprietary algorithms to help determine the optimum generator set for your application. GERP is unique in that it will build a custom profile for an engine based upon information about your fuel composition, site data such as elevation, and even optimize your emissions should you have tougher standards to meet. No other manufacturer provides these types of tools to squeeze out the best performance from their engines. This alone solidifies CAT at the top choice for natural gas engines.

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

RLN Energy For Your Corporate Power Needs

There’s a lot of moving parts for corporations in industries that rely on localized electrical power. Systems are complex and specialized. Decision makers need a go-to source for power generation—someone convenient, reliable, and available.

That’s where we come in.

RLN Energy Services in Edmonton, Alberta provides equipment and maintenance training for power generation—we are convenient, reliable, and available.

RLN’s services provide the necessary hub for setting up and maintaining power sources for a variety of industries.

RLN has been providing power since 2011. We sell power equipment, from small ancillary parts to engines, complete generator sets, and even complete power plants. You can see our current inventory of power equipment here.

If buying the equipment is not cost effective for temporary jobs, RLN will rent power equipment to customers as well.

RLN’s global reach has enabled us to not only provide the right power equipment to the right locations, but also to train local employees on how to maintain the power equipment, ensuring our customers get the maximum ROI from their power solutions over time.

From grid tie to stand-alone islanded systems, RLN’s solutions cover a wide range of power requirements. Contact us today to discuss your corporation’s power needs!

Source URL: http://www.rlnenergyservices.com/blog/rln-energy-for-your-corporate-power-needs/

Thursday, 21 April 2016

The Rise of Natural Gas

All too often products and services are portrayed as safe, harmless or even healthy, only to find out later on that they are detrimental to our health, the health of our families, the health of the environment, or the health of the economy.

Energy sources have long been one of the largest contributors to pollution, accidental death and illnesses such as coal worker’s pneumoconiosis. It is our right and our duty to find the safest and most efficient sources of energy possible in order to protect our families and the planet on which we live.

Natural gas is more efficient than oil, gasoline or diesel. Recent advances in technology have led the ongoing advancement of natural gas engines, such as those built by Caterpillar, which is capable of eliminating the use of electricity in the home, expanding the efficient benefits of natural gas appliances from just one or two appliances to your entire home.

Natural gas is an excellent clean energy source. Minimal carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen emissions are produced with Caterpillar natural gas generators. Caterpillar natural gas generators do not release nearly the amount of pollutants into the environment as competitors like oil and gasoline do.

Recent technology has made it possible to produce enough natural gas to support the world for generations. By using natural gas, we reduce our dependency on foreign oil and keep jobs right here in Alberta.

For the conscious consumer who is concerned about the future for their children, the environment, and the economy, natural gas is an easy choice, and Caterpillar natural gas generators make the transition simple.


RLN Energy Services Is Here To Assist You

RLN Energy Services is here to assist you with any industrial scale power supply needs you have. We specialize in mobile generators and pride ourselves on our ability to mobilize large portable power modules using large reciprocating units or turbines, natural gas or diesel. Our generators are easy to move in to place and can be installed in parallel or set up on auto transfer for situations where the power must stay on.

We Buy!

If you have power supply equipment that you no longer need or use, we will buy a wide range of products from our customers who want to sell power supply equipment they no longer need.

We Rent!

Only need a generator for a few days? RLN has very flexible and competitive rental agreements. We offer many options ranging from Natural Gas to Diesel to Turbine applications.

We Sell!

In addition to rentals, we also sell some of the leading industry brands and high quality power equipment for you to rely on and get the job done!

Whether you need a generator, a large industrial engine, a fixed power plant or ancillary equipment, we are here to facilitate your power supply needs. RLN is happy to collaborate with you and recommend, locate, install and commission that is right for you!

We look forward to the chance to earn your business. For any further information please contact us any time!

Source URL: http://www.rlnenergyservices.com/blog/rln-energy-services-is-here-to-assist-you/