Power Need

The Murugappa Group is a conglomerate based in Chennai, India operating in many diverse areas, including engineering, abrasives, finance, general insurance, fertilizers, farm inputs, sugar, bio-products, nutraceuticals, cycles and plantations. With 29 limited companies under its umbrella and manufacturing facilities spread across 13 states, it is one of the fastest growing diversified business houses in India.

The Group has grown consistently and become a market leader across a spectrum of products through its decisive and visionary response to changing times. According to N. Varadarajan, Senior Manger at Southern Energy Development Corporation Ltd. (SEDCO), The Group has always recognized challenges at the outset. In 1998, The Group was faced with the challenge of finding a reliable power supply in a remote part of India and anticipated the need for a power plant in order to efficiently maintain business growth.

Developed as a subsidiary of Carborundum Universal, an established Murugappa Group limited company, SEDCO was formed to produce a captive source of power for The Group, at Nallur, Tiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu, while optimizing cost and quality.

“It seemed a big challenge to identify a reliable genset partner who provided a good product, great service and reliable support,” said Varadarajan. “In fact, the list grew until we met Gmmco, the Caterpillar® dealer for southern and western India.”

Solution

SEDCO engaged Caterpillar as the genset provider for its 5 MW natural gas-based power plants, primarily as a captive source of power exporting to grid. Two CAT® G3612 generator sets were chosen to power the project, based on the maximum uptime and ability of the engine to run continuously on field gas.

Two CAT G3612 generators sets were installed. Reliable part and technical support was a post-installation priority for SEDCO, not an easy task due to Nallur's remote location. However, Gmmco has been consistently providing prompt support for many years. Service support coordinates with parts and technical support in order to keep the plant running without any down-time.

Varadarajan, who has been associated with this project from conception to installation, has always been pleased with product support services. He said that Gmmco has an excellent track record of providing scheduled maintenance and overhaul. In fact, Gmmco has finished overhauls before the originally scheduled completion time on several occasions.

“Parts and technical support by Gmmco have been more than satisfactory,” he said. “There are instances I have witnessed where parts were carried and delivered within 24 hours in person, which resulted in saving a week's time at a crucial period.”

Results

SEDCO's detailed record keeping confirms the high quality performance of Caterpillar gensets. The machines have been performing consistently with 98 percent availability for eight years. The two CAT G3612 generator sets have each clocked up a staggering 65,000 hours of operation at 100 percent load. With a major overhaul per-formed recently, these generator sets are expected to continue for many years ahead.

Download the Power Profile