Cat’s Powerful Connection

BY IAN CAMERON

A new digital service has been launched by Caterpillar for its electric power customers and dealers enabling them to remotely monitor location, health and efficiency of generator sets and to send alerts.

Caterpillar said the new Cat Connect Service combines equipment, technology and services to improve productivity, control costs and reduce risk, as well as impact safety and sustainability.

The digital service will provide customers and dealers with the ability to remotely monitor, locate and manage their generator sets. Combined with the Cat dealers’ service capabilities, Cat Connect services will enable them to help customers control costs, reduce risk and improve business and system performance, said Caterpillar which makes a large range of diesel and gas generator sets.

Cat Connect can send alerts back to the dealer or customer through user interfaces allowing them to conduct preventative maintenance, performance optimization and lifecycle planning.

Alerts can be customized, helping customers proactively manage their generator sets.  Plans are in place to expand capabilities, such as providing visualization of information on non-generator set assets, developing reports, remote start and stop and augmented reality, Caterpillar said.

“Integrating Cat Connect technology and services into Cat generator sets provides a win-win solution for our customers and Cat dealers. Data from technology-equipped units will provide more insight into equipment performance and operations, allowing Cat dealers to customize solutions for optimal efficiency, reducing costs for customers, improving reliability and minimizing downtime,” said Dagoberto Goncalves, commercial manager for Cat Electric Power.

According to Caterpillar, one customer with which the company partnered was experiencing multiple instances where the generator set was failing to start.  The cause was a dead battery but the customer didn’t know why the battery was continually draining.  With remote monitoring services, Caterpillar said it was able to identify the problem and then recommend corrective action.

Caterpillar added that by the customer consistently running their standby generator set for only five minutes a day it was not enough time to replace the charge on the battery. The ability to use data collected from the generator set to predict asset behavior helped the customer avoid unexpected downtime.