MTU Gen-Sets For UNC

Rolls-Royce and its MTU distributor partner, Western Branch Diesel, recently delivered three MTU 16V2000 DS1250 standardized backup generator sets to service an area of the University of North Carolina’s Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) campus. The generator sets were installed at the university’s new central utility plant and will deliver up to 800 hours of standby power per year to select, critical buildings across the 1000-acre campus.

“Withnearly 30,000 students and 3,700 faculty and staff on campus, it is imperativethat dependable power is available during any conditions experienced at UNC Charlotte,” said Kevin McKinney, senior manager Sales at Rolls-Royce’ssubsidiary MTU America. “MTU generator sets deliver high reliability along withlow fuel consumption, optimized system integration ability and low maintenanceintervals for a result that’s hard to beat in terms of operation and peace ofmind.”

A key benefit that helped secure the order for the project was the onboard paralleling capabilities of MTU gen-sets. Onboard paralleling offers numerous advantages in terms of reliability and performance confidence but can be complicated and difficult to customize. MTU said it has ensured its generator sets offer as much simplicity as possible when customers require paralleling capability. By comparison, MTU said its generator sets require fewer components and parts than others.

“Having the ability to do a moderately difficult sequence of operations in an onboard paralleling application in an extremely versatile, plug-and-play configuration with the MTU generator sets is one of the reasons we became the basis of design for the project with UNC Charlotte,” said Clayton Pacunas, application engineer for Western Branch Diesel.

Working with the university, Western Branch Diesel – an MTU distributor and services provider that supplies sales and service to the on-highway, power generation, oil and gas, construction, industrial, mining, and marine markets – oversaw the installation of the MTU sets. The multi-unit setup incorporates an auto-siphon fuel arrangement designed to offer a high level of reliability without adding complexity, as it allows all three generator sets to share the same fuel source without pumps or switches. This provides ensured system availability in case of any component failure, Western Branch said.