In North America, the largest market for generator sets is for standby power. In residential, commercial and industrial uses, standby generator sets provide a reliable AC power supply to carry the home, institution, public facility or business through a utilities power outage.
Because electrical utilities are so reliable, standby power systems tend to use higher engine and generator output ratings. This is because over the entire life of the generator set it may only run a few hundred hours. Therefore there are restrictions on the usage of the generator set. Typically the number of operating hours per year must be less than 200. There is no overload capability.
Standby generators often interact with other building systems such as fire suppression. They are usually started and stopped automatically through a control system that monitors the utility power feed.
Emergency Electrical Power Supply
This term is used by building or electrical codes for standby power systems for applications such as hospitals, nursing/care homes, and residential buildings with fire pumps and elevators. These systems typically must provide power within 10 seconds to all life safety systems, including emergency lighting, exit signs, fire alarms, and so on. Unlike other standby power systems, emergency power systems in Canada (and the US) must be on a separate conduit system with separate panels and transfer switches.
The Frontier Power—Kohler Advantages
Here are two reasons why you want to talk to us about your standby generator needs:
- Most of Kohler’s industrial generators are powered by either a John Deere or Mitsubishi engine. We are very familiar with these engines given that we are exclusive distributors of John Deere and Mitsubishi engines in Western Canada.
- Kohler selects from a wide selection of engines, including John Deere and Mitsubishi, to power their generators. Not being tied to one engine supplier allows us to deliver a generator with the best load response for your application.
Checklist of Things to Consider
Find Your Generator
As an authorized KOHLER distributor, FRONTIER POWER PRODUCTS can help you meet your power needs for industrial, residential, marine and rental with diesel and gaseous generators, transfer switches, paralleling switchgear, controls and related accessories. KOHLER provides power systems integration for all your applications. Even after your KOHLER Power system is installed, look to us for all your service, parts and maintenance needs.
Have a look at the industrial generators offered by Kohler Power Systems and then give us a call to discuss your customer’s or your requirements.
Industrial Generator Sets (10–4000 kW)
From distributed generation and load management to power quality for mission-critical applications, our Kohler sales specialists have the knowledge and resources to offer complete system solutions. We welcome your requests for quotes, sizing, or questions on application and system design.
Transfer Switches
Kohler offers a full line of automatic transfer switches for a basic emergency standby system to a complete multi-generator, multi-utility system.
Kohler White Paper: Selecting between a 3-pole and 4-pole ATS