Benefits of using a local cogen company
A well operating biogas power generation system can provide significant environmental and financial benefits for your business. However, the very best, most efficient biomass energy plant in the world can not help your operation if replacement parts take months to source or repairs and maintenance can only be carried out by a team on the other side of the world at great expense.
This is an issue many Australian businesses are having when using cogeneration or biogas power systems manufactured by multinational companies who don’t have locally based support.
However, Australia is not the only country to be suffering from an after sales service scarcity, many nations where biogas power generation is still gaining popularity are in the same boat.
A recent article in the South African newspaper the Mail & Guardian, featured piggery and abattoir owner, Mike Fysh, with a $5.6 million biogas electricity generation plant and CHP system which is having to flare off gas due to the unavailability of repair services and spare parts for the systems turbines and engine. Unfortunately the cogeneration system the company chose, produced by US company Capstone, doesn’t offer local servicing or sourcing of spare parts.
When up and running the piggery plant generated around 90% of the power needed to run the piggery and abattoir, as well as utilising the heat generated for use in the abattoir. The cogen system operated effectively for 4 years generating around $2.6 million of electricity when it was up and running.
Mr Fysh is considering swapping the current engines with a locally sourced alternative to avoid this very costly issue in the future.
Using a cogeneration system which is locally engineered and manufactured ensures expert servicing and repairs can be carried out promptly, reducing the downtime for your business and maximising efficiency. It also means replacement parts are straightforward to source.
Another benefit of using a local cogen company is being in the same (or similar) time zones mean a quick troubleshooting phone call can happen straight away quickly addressing the problem, rather than waiting until you can access support from the other side of the world.
If you’d like to find out how a locally engineered and manufactured cogeneration system can help your business give our team a call today.
Read the full Mail & Guardian article here – mg.co.za/article/2019-06-21-00-this-piggery-cant-go-to-market