GPS Delivers 9MW of Emergency Power

Global Power Supply is proud to announce that it has recently completed the delivery of (3) new MTU 3000kW standby diesel generators to a major data center owner/operator in the Calgary area. The successful delivery was the culmination of a large project that included the custom fabrication of arctic-style enclosures suitable for Western Canada’s extreme weather conditions.

The project was spearheaded by Rob Hansen, Director of GPS’s Mission Critical Facilities Division, who noted “from the perspective of KW capacity, we’ve completed plenty of larger projects, but it was the genset enclosures that made this one particularly exciting. Three megawatt gensets are already big machines, so when you set one inside of an arctic style enclosure you’re looking at a complete unit that’s over 56 feet long, 14 feet wide and weighs over 160,000 lbs. It takes four trucks per genset – twelve total – to get all three generators to the data center, and then you need to do a decent amount of assembly work once you get there. These were quite possibly the most massive enclosures we’ve ever supplied, largely due to the snow hoods on each end.”

The work began back in the Fall of 2014 when GPS was awarded the project based on a design-build quotation which included the genset, custom enclosures, freight and logistics, startup and commissioning, onsite assembly, and other site services. GPS worked closely with the customer and installing contractors through a detailed submittals review process, tweaking the design throughout based on input of all parties. Scott Feinberg, GPS’s Director of Production, was responsible for the execution of the project. “The shipping of this project was something we knew would be a challenge from the beginning,” recalled Mr. Feinberg. “The idea is to minimize the amount of time [our customer] needed to be paying to have such a massive crane onsite. To do that it’s important that the loads show up around the same time and in a specific order. That can get messy because you’ve got twelve trucks and each one tends to move at a different pace. Some require police escorts and lead cars since they are oversized, some sail right through. It takes a lot of coordination to get it right.”

When all was said and done, the delivery went off without a hitch. The installing contractor is now hard at work making the electrical connections while Global Power Supply has technicians performing pre-startup activities. Full startup and commissioning are expected to occur in late August or early September of 2015.

For more information about Global Power Supply’s generator custom fabrication contact a power expert in our Mission Critical Division.