1. March 30, 2013
“Taking the Bite out of
Power Outages”
READING ELECTRIC, in conjunction with Mail Shark, provides this
information as an educational service to the Region’s Industrial and
Commercial Businesses.
Mail Shark (www.themailshark.com) is a recognized leader providing
nationwide printing and mailing services, specializing in specific industry
marketing plans. Mail Shark’s clients rely on constant weekly delivery of
direct mail advertising to ensure their business growth. Mail Shark’s portfolio
includes but is not limited to direct mail campaigns, printing of menus,
brochures, postcards, magnets, and a variety of other promotional pieces.
Critical Power Problem Identification
Satisfying the marketing and promotional needs of a nationwide customer
base that relies on the design, printing and mailing of their marketing
programs without interruption on 24/7/365 basis requires excellence in
project planning, implementation and operation. This level of customer
commitment requires reliable electric utility service for Mail Shark to provide
100% certainty of their production schedules.
Located in the middle of the Nolde Forest in Mohnton Pennsylvania, Mail
Shark is faced with high vulnerability to power outages. It was critical that
Mail Shark had a quality back-up electrical service plan.
As the seasonal storms seemed to increase in strength, the frequency and
duration of power outages became untenable for Mail Shark. The cost of
losing production for a one (1) week period equates to about $50,000 in
immediate losses. The greater impact of customer dissatisfaction, while hard
to calculate, is very real. Short term power outages of just a couple of hours
were very disruptive to manufacturing operations and greatly impacted
profitability due to overtime, waste and expediting charges.
If Mail Shark lost power for one week twice a year, the profit losses over 10
years would equate to 1 million dollars. More importantly, millions of dollars
would be at risk due to unsatisfied customers seeking business from
competitors. Mail Shark President, Brian Johnson, decided to implement a
plan to eliminate the negative impacts of power outages
The decision was made to investigate upgrading the emergency standby
generator system to carry the current full loads of manufacturing operations,
IT Support Systems, and planned future expansions.
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2. Critical Power Problem Solution
A six (6) month investigation and analysis provided the Mail Shark Team with
sufficient information to embark upon the project phase of budget analysis,
appropriation approval, and ordering of an emergency standby power
system. In October 2012, the Contract was signed. This project installation
phase required two (2) months for completion which included equipment
delivery.
Initially, a study was completed to determine if
placing small individual backup generators to
serve specific equipment would be viable. In the
final analysis it was deemed a more reliable and
cost effective solution to design and install a full
service generator into the main utility feed.
The solution that evolved over this period
resulted in a Standby Power System that
consisted of: 250 Kw diesel powered generator
with a sub-base fuel tank for 48 hours of
runtime, new 800 amp Service Entrance rated
transfer switch, and a remote annunciator panel
which mimics the generator control panel
alarms. This equipment was to be installed
outdoors and would provide the entire 800 amp
service meeting the current requirements. This
solution would provide Mail Shark with four ‘9s’
capability.
The ROI is expected to be less than one (1)
year. The Standby Power System would pay for
itself after only ten (10) days of lost production
avoidance The System is currently sized for
65% loading. It was also decided to purchase
the System from a local Company (Reading
Electric) to avoid response time issues.
Implementation and Associated Issues:
As with any complex Solution, there were
dozens of details that needed to have special
focus to ensure success of the Program in terms
of performance and schedule. These details
were:
1) Project Management Team consisting
of decision makers at Mail Shark,
George H. Longenecker & Sons, and
Reading Electric.
2) Real-time status meetings with virtual
Electronic Meetings / communications
as required.
3) Advance review and pre-approval from
Local Municipality for Permits.
4) Offsite Equipment Testing before
shipment & installation at the Mail
Shark Facility to avoid potential start-up
problems.
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3. Implementation and Associated Issues (continued):
5) Detailed installation and test schedules.
George H. Longenecker & Sons was
selected for the on-site installer of the
equipment.
a. Site Preparation
b. Equipment Placement
c. Mechanical
d. Electric
e. System Testing
6) Detailed plan and schedule for
commissioning and tie-in to the Facility
systems.
The Program time line was:
Equipment Delivery - 5 weeks
Installation - 2 weeks
Planned Commissioning & Tie-in – 4 hours
Careful coordination among Mail Shark, George
H. Longenecker & Sons and Reading Electric
Personnel resulted in a Tie-In that did not impact
printing operations. Commissioning and
Acceptance Testing were scheduled in advance,
safeguarding Mail Shark’s operations.
Commissioning took place in December 2012
and this commissioning included operational
testing where “loss of utility” conditions were
simulated.
Emergency System testing
Since commissioning, the Emergency
Power Standby system has not been
tested as yet by nature, but Mail Shark
has put in place a bi-weekly test of the
system. These tests do not fully transfer
all loads to the Emergency System. A
full load test will be conducted twice
annually.
The Emergency System carries a two
year/ 1000 hour warranty on the
generator, one year on the transfer
switch and is under an annual service
contract for service and testing.
Critical Power Lessons Learned
Several lessons were learned through
the implementation and execution of the
Mail Shark Standby Generator Program.
1) Management monitoring of corporate
growth and demands on the
Emergency Power Standby Systems
is critical for maintaining business
integrity.
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4. Critical Power Lessons Learned (continued)
2) A complete engineering analysis of
the current and future electrical loads
is required for correct System sizing
and design.
3) Attention paid to the implementation
and commissioning schedule pays
large benefits during the ‘tie-in’ to the
facility.
Critical Power Information Resources
For additional information on Standby
Power Systems, contact Russ Yerger,
Critical Power Systems Manager,
Reading Electric Phone: 610-929-5777;
email: ryerger@readingelectric.com
READING ELECTRIC is a leading
supplier of electro-mechanical
equipment & services for Industrial and
Commercial Customers, specializing in
providing Total Solution Packages for
Critical Power Requirements to
safeguard the Industry’s profitability
from electrical power outages.
Website: www.readingelectric.com
File: CP#033013
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