Frequently Asked Questions

There are 3 main reasons:

1. There is no other source of electricity available.
2. There is insufficient capacity from the commercial supplier to meet requirements.
3. An alternate source of electrical power is necessary in the event of a periodic or sustained loss of commercial mains power. Such power losses can seriously affect different organisations:

• In Hospitals – a loss of patient monitoring and/or life support.
• In Data Centres – a loss in data processing and some data.
• In offices and ACCOMMODATION buildings – a loss in power, lighting and lifts.
• In Processing Plants – loss of production, raw material and/or product.

There are many types of Generator Sets; there are single phase or three phase units, petrol, diesel, gas or electric motor driven. They can be basic manual start, automatic start or continual running units. They come in open form, WEATHERPROOF enclosed, sound attenuated, fixed, skid-mounted or trailer mounted. When sizing a Generator Set consideration should be given to the following:

Resistive loads:

Lighting and heating: The total resistive load can be calculated by adding all the installed resistive loads in kilowatts (kW).

Inductive loads:

Motors and transformers: Consideration must be given to the size, type and starting method of each electric motor.

Apparent power is defined as the power that is “apparently” absorbed by a system. That is, the product of current times voltage tells us a device appears to be using a certain amount of power. However, this does not take into account the fact that the device can store (or delay) current or voltage and this results in the CALCULATIONS being slightly skewed.

Apparent power is useful when we have a device like a diesel generator, where the wires inside have a limited capacity to pass current and we may not know in advance what will be connected to the generator. In other words, it doesn’t matter what the delay (or phase angle) is, the generator can only allow a limited amount of current to pass through its wires.

Because of this, many generators (and most transformers) are rated in volt-amperes (VA), or thousand-volt-amperes (kVA). The apparent power in KVA multiplied by the power factor

(PF) is the real power in kilowatts (KW).

All modern engines, whether they are diesel or petrol, have specific requirements in relation to oil specification. It is therefore important that individual engine maintenance and operation guidelines be FOLLOWED when selective oil type and quantity for routine maintenance. If in doubt, please refer to the supplier or Distributor representative.

Generator Power carry the more frequently called for spare parts including filters, gaskets, belts, AVR’s in our warehouse. For those parts that are not always “off the shelf”, we make it our business to obtain these items quickly and at competitive pricing so that we can keep YOUR downtime to a minimum.