When a network operator takes a feeder out for planned works, a hired generator keeps the street lit. SP Energy Networks, a UK electricity network operator, has now set up the next four years of that business, and changed the fuel. Trade press reported on 22 October that the company is investing £46 million in a generator hire framework, and that the back-up sets will run on hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, rather than diesel.
Four Hire Firms, Five Regions
The framework runs for four years and goes to four firms: Generator Hire North Wales, Generator Power, GWF Generators and Rehlko. It covers central and southern Scotland, Cheshire, Merseyside, Shropshire and North Wales. The generators are there to supply customers during planned works and power cuts, and the company also presents the framework as a source of jobs, training and business for its operating areas.
HVO is made from waste cooking oil, other vegetable oils and animal fats, and the reports quote the company as saying its carbon emissions are far lower than those of diesel. No percentage or tonnage is given. The articles also do not say how many generators are involved, how large they are, when the new arrangement starts, or what the £46 million covers in detail. One of the company's licence directors called the framework a big change in how it operates.
What To Ask Before A Hire Contract Names The Fuel
A fuel switch on a hire fleet looks simple from the buyer's side and is not always simple from the yard. Engines in a mixed fleet come from different makers and different years, so the first question is whether each maker has released its engine for HVO, and on what terms. It is worth having that in writing before the fuel appears in a contract. The second is practical: back-up sets stand for long periods between jobs, so how the fuel is stored and how long it may stay in the tank matter more than they do on a set that runs every day.
The same questions apply to a standby plant at a data center or a CHP site that is considering HVO. The sets are the same kind of machines. Earlier items in this series: Rehlko's redesigned KG generators, and our page on power generation.
Sources: The Energyst, Renewable Energy Magazine
