CHP - COMBINED HEAT & POWER


Gas engine support specialist Gen-C has helped on-farm AD operator Springvale


Energies to break free from a monthly CHP service


contract. By upgrading the control panel, overhauling the engine, and supplying parts and servicing on a pay-as-you-go basis, Gen-C has not only given


farmer Nigel Bloom control of his own engine but has


also slashed his service and maintenance costs by 50%


E


nergy generated by Springvale Energies’ 1.1MW anaerobic digestion plant in Retford,


Nottinghamshire, is converted by CHP engines into heat and power for use at the on-site log cabin retirement park, café and restaurant. The reliable and efficient running of these engines is crucial to the success of the business, which also includes a group of popular fishing lakes. But when owner Nigel Bloom purchased two


600kW MWM gas engines in 2014, he also signed up to a servicing contract which saw him pay an ongoing daily fee to enable the service provider to access and monitor his engines remotely and restart them as necessary. There was also a maintenance charge for every hour that his engines ran. Although the service agreement guaranteed 8,000 hours of engine uptime a year, with 8,760 hours in a year, this represented an uptime of just 92%. As a result, Springvale’s CHPs could be left out of action for 760 hours, at a cost of £7,000 per month or £84,000 per year, without the provider having breached the terms of the contract. As it was not uncommon for there to be a


delay for the CHPs to be restarted whenever a simple issue such as bad weather caused a temporary engine shutdown, so the team at Springvale Energies soon took to rectifying issues themselves. “For every hour that our engines aren’t operating, we’re losing money,” explained plant manager, Richard Gagg. “It


THE BENEFITS OF PAY-AS-YOU-GO CHP SUPPORT


was often quicker to fix any minor issues ourselves, such as resetting the engines or changing the spark plugs, rather than wait hours for an engineer to arrive.” Then, in July 2020, when one of the engines


neared the end of its 48,000-hour contract, the service provider informed Bloom that his CHP also required a full E70 refurbishment service, at an additional cost of £150,000. But as Bloom explained: “We only feed our digester with purpose-grown energy crops, which means our gas is very clean. What’s more, although our engine is a 600kW model, it is de-rated at 499kW, which means that it runs at 80% of its load capacity. It is well known that 80% of an engine’s wear happens during the last 20% of its life. I didn’t believe ours had reached that point, especially as the service provider had carried out the previous interim service 5,000 hours later than its due date, which would have extended the engine’s service life by a further six months.”


AN UPGRADE A fellow AD operator recommended gas engine support specialist Gen-C to Bloom. Firstly, James Thompson, Gen-C’s managing director, commissioned his service partner, Warren Vessey from GenV, to inspect the engine. As Bloom had suspected, Vessey confirmed that the engine was in a suitable condition to delay the E70 service. Thompson then recommended replacing the existing control panel with an open-access Motortech version, featuring the latest ComAp technology. This would provide full control over the engine, enabling them to dial in remotely at any time, and from anywhere, to monitor their engine’s performance, diagnose any faults, and fix them instantly. Thompson also suggested upgrading the fuel mixer and ignition controller with new Motortech parts especially suited to biogas, to increase the engine’s efficiency further. In total, it took just four days to complete the work. The upgrading work was so


quick and, from the moment the engine was switched back on, it ran solidly until the next service without a single hitch. Furthermore, the control panel is so simple to use that, should there be any problems, it would be easy for the company


www.energymanagementmag.co.uk


to correct most things themselves. However, within the cost of the control panel, Thompson included six months’ free remote monitoring and fault rectification for anything that couldn’t be dealt with in-house. As the exclusive UK partner of RS Motor, a


leading MWM parts provider, Gen-C can also supply all of the site’s CHP spares. The ongoing servicing is now being taken care of by Thompson’s partners at GenV and, combined, these solutions have halved


Springvale Energies’ bills. “By breaking away from our CHP service contract and switching to pay-as-you-go, we have cut our service and maintenance costs by 50% over the course of a year,” revealed Bloom. “We’re now in the driving seat, managing our engines ourselves and getting true value for money.” Thompson added: “It’s important that people


know there are other options available for their CHP servicing and spares needs – no-one should feel that their only choice is to sign up to a lengthy, expensive, locked-in servicing contract. Instead, operators can enjoy the benefits of an open access control panel, biogas-specific auxiliary components, a wide range of quality parts in stock for immediate delivery, and pay-as-you-go servicing by certified engineers. The result is not only peace of mind and a smooth-running CHP engine, but also significantly reduced bills.”


Gen-C www.gen-c.co.uk ENERGY MANAGEMENT - Summer 2021 9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36