Generator X: IRN on the growing competition in the mobile generator market

The generator set market is becoming increasingly crowded as traditional genset manufacturers increasingly see competition from engine OEMs as well. Murray Pollok reports.

You can tell that a market is becoming more important when a manufacturer like JCB starts to invest. JCB established its Power Products division in 2006 to add gensets and lighting towers to its range of equipment, and now the division is poised for a major expansion as it benefits from its parent company’s in-house engine development programme as well as the strength of its global distribution network.

It would be fair to Power Products activities so far as conservative, with just 60 dealers currently selling the gensets and towers, but that is set to change in a big way with the division planning to increase the number of dealers to 240 within five years.

Jonathan Garnham, who took up the post of director and general manager of the business in January this year, said the experience gained by the existing dealers over the past six years could now be used to encourage other JCB dealers to take on the generators and lighting towers.

“We’ve learned about what is required to be a successful dealer in Power Products”, said Mr Garnham, who has worked at JCB for 13 years, “Globally, our dealers who have taken part have had their eyes opened to the opportunity.”

JCB’s 750 construction equipment dealers worldwide are the natural target for the Power Products division, but it will also consider third party dealers who are specialists in power generation.

The Power products division has not yet marketed its products in North America, but Mr Garnham said the aim would be to have a presence their within five years, although there are no firm plans.

As the company plans its expansion it is also growing its product range, with new LED lighting towers being launched as well as improvements to its range of generators, which are now using new digital controllers.

JCB uses its own four-cylinder engines in around 15-20% of its gensets, in the 60 to 140 kVA range, but it intends to use the recently announced six-cylinder engine by the third quarter of next year, taking the JCB-powered genset range up to around 200 kVA. The full generator line comprises 114 models from 8 to 2700 kVA.

JCB sources its gensets and towers from a third party supplier, believed to be Himoinsa of Spain, although this is not confirmed by JCB. JCB said the products are built to its technical brief and specifications.

Most of its gensets from 30 to 600 kVA are available with Stage III engines – although there is a gap in the 150-200 kVA range at the moment and says it is ready for Stage IIIB when that becomes a requirement in Europe.

Also new is the use, for the first time of MTU’s 1600 series engines, which will be available on units with outputs from 300 to 700 kVA, alongside the existing 275-600 kVA Scania powered units, which will still be available. The MTU engines are all Stage IIIA.

Product updates to the range include the option of Deep Sea controllers for its engines above 650 kVA that will allow the sets to be synchronised easily. Dave Hardwick, product manager at Power Products, says one of the benefits of the Deep Sea system is that it can be used to synchronise machines in mixed-brand fleets.

Also focusing on engine emission issues is Atlas Copco Portable Energy. Ben van Hove, vice president of marketing at the company, says the company is still working hard on issues relating to new engine regulations, with generators in the US requiring Tier 4 interim engines and now moving the Tier 4 final. Although these emission levels are not yet required in Europe, Mr van Hove says the work being done in the US will serve it well when the same emission limits come into force in Europe.

The shift to new emission levels in US has not been without problems, and Mr van Hove says the move to Tier 4 Final represents a big challenge, with rental buyers not wanting a wide range of different Tier gensets in their fleets he says there is a possibility that some rental companies will wait until Tier 4 Final arrives before investing again, and instead may refurbish existing machines.

Atlas Copco Portable Energy, which has now created a technical centre of excellence for generators and lighting towers at its Spanish facility (the former Gesan factory), is now pushing its digital AVR system, which allows a generator to accept high incoming currents when a piece of equipment starts up (say a pump) without having to size the entire set for that current. The company says this can mean that a generator half the size can be used.

Mr van Hove says digital AVR is a kind of “next step” after the introduction of paralleling technology, which allows banks of smaller sets to be used instead of a single large unit, thereby reducing fuel use and allowing sets to run at efficient loads. This practice, typically for 150 kVA gensets and above, is already popular in Europe, and Mr van Hove thinks it will become so also in North America, although there is more unease in that market about how easy the process is.

Doosan Portable Power is also meeting European Stage IIIA emission regulations with its latest generators, the G80-IIIA (80 kVA prime power) and G100-IIIA (100 kVA prime power).

Sharing a similar design and characteristics to the larger G150-IIIA and G200-IIIA models launched in 2012, Doosan highlights an innovative fuel tank frame design offering a containment base integrated as standard in the frame, ensuring 110% fluid containment capacity. The generators have a standard fuel capacity offering a minimum of 12 hours of autonomous operation (at 75% of the load), while a 24-hour onboard fuel tank configuration is available as an option.

A digital control panel version, offering extended parameter measurements and historical storage of events and alarms, is available as an option. Doosan says the output performance stability of the generators is ensured by a powertrain featuring a combination of John Deere Stage IIIA engines and Leroy Somer alternators.

Competition in the power sector continues to grow. In addition to established players like Himoinsa, Atlas Copco and many others, increasingly the market is seeing engine manufacturers enter the fray. Cummins and MTU, for example, both offer ranges of gensets (and Cummins has recently launched a new series of sets specifically for the rental market) and now, with a launch in February, comes Scania.

The company’s new division, Scania Gensets, is offering a range of open or in closed canopy sets in the 250 - 600 kVA (50 Hz) and 280 - 665 kVA (60 Hz) sizes. The engines are available in fuel optimised versions or Stage IIIA compliant.

The company says customers in the mining and construction industries, often operating on remote sites, can now get Scania's support with products such as trucks, Scania-powered off-road equipment and now also gensets.

“Scania's solid reputation for operating economy and durability, coupled to easy installation and emission compliance fit perfectly in power generation,” says Lars Eklund, Scania's sales director, power generation engines. “With the support of Scania's global sales and service network, it’s a strong and flexible offer.”

Belgium’s Europower, meanwhile, continues to invest in its business. It tells IRN that the success of its new range of generating sets from 60 up to 325 kVA, in open, silenced and rental versions, is prompting the company to add a new building to its facility.

The investment, which will boost the facility to 27000 m², of which 9000m² is covered, will allow Europower to increase its stock levels, both in components and finished generators. Construction of the new building will start in August 2013 and is planned to be ready in the middle of 2014.

The company reports some recent orders with rental companies including Loxam in Belgium, which is adding trailer mounted 20 and 33 kVA rental specification units, and Delta Rent in the Netherlands.

Delta Rent has been using Europower EPSR rental generators with Volvo engines and is now offering parallel operating 85 and 100 kVA sets to their rental customers. The sets are equipped with Deep Sea Electronics control modules.

SDMO is expanding up in sizes with its recently launched RC1650 ‘portable power station’, offering 1450 kVA of prime power in a 20 ft (6 m) ISO low cube container. The French-based company says the set has compact dimensions “and is designed to provide major back-up power for factories, hospitals and/or sites that require continuous electricity at short notice and where available space is limited.”

What is interesting about the genset market, however, are the growing number of companies offering hybrid or alternative energy gensets. Bredenoord in the Netherlands is well known for its fuel cell powered sets, but in the UK there are two companies, Off-Grid Energy and Firefly Solar Generators, now selling hybrid battery/diesel engine sets.

The concept of the hybrid technology is for a battery pack to take over power duties when demands are low – providing quiet power and using now diesel – with the diesel set being used when demands increase (at which time it will also recharge the batteries in preparation for their next use.)

Off-Grid Energy has already made progress with its Grid to Go system (winner of the rental product of the year award at the recent European Rental Awards), while Firefly has been using its extensive experience in the events rental sector – its origins are as an events rental company – to develop a range of solar powered and hybrid power solutions.

Andy Mead, founder and managing director of Firefly, tells IRN that its Hybrid Power Generator (HPG) is now available in three sizes, 12, 18 and 24 kVA. Hybrid power systems up to 100 kVA are possible, but then the battery pack is so large that it ceases to be a practical mobile unit for rental.

He says the sweet spot for hybrid power systems for the rental market is currently up to 30 kVA, and that they come into their own where power loads are asymmetric, in other words, when there is a wide variation on power demands and where you want to avoid running a larger diesel set at low and inefficient loadings.

As well as continuing to develop its hybrid power solutions the company is also planning to launch an LED lighting tower with a hybrid power system, with a February launch likely.

Although with a background in rental the company is now targeting sales of its hybrid sales in the UK and internationally. “Our mission is to make sustainable energy available to everybody”, says Mr Mead, “The strategy in the long term is to grow through product sales – both bespoke and off the shelf systems.”

The question is, how long before the big names of power generation start to get into the alternative energy sector. You can be sure that they are watching closely.