Power Solutions for Utilities

Peterson Power Systems, Inc.—authorized Cat engine dealer to customers in California, Oregon, and southwest Washington—has earned the respect and loyalty of our customers by consistently providing excellence in products and service. We are a recognized leader of distributed power for utilities, healthcare facilities, manufacturing companies, telecommunication, institutional and commercial businesses, hotels, data centers, construction sites, and residential buildings.

As a utility provider, you supply power to meet everyday needs, whether it’s peak shaving to save costs or off-grid power for isolated, remote cities. That's why you need a source that runs non-stop. Peterson provides stationary or temporary diesel generators that are cost-effective, reliable power sources, meeting spikes in demand and keeping power affordable for your customers.

Peterson Power Systems is your source for ongoing service and support. Our products and our team are working to power your world. We offer a variety of solutions for your utility needs, including gas engine generators that are cost-effective and reliable – keeping power affordable for your customers.

Meeting Base or Peak Loads with Natural Gas

In the absence of a reliable centralized power plant, it pays for electric utilities to operate gas engine generators to serve base electrical loads.

Gas engine generators are commonly used to manage spikes in demand for utility grid electric power, or peak loads, which typically occur in the early morning or the late afternoon. Peak loads occur because thousands of people begin using power at the same time, e.g. arriving home from work and turning on the lights, air conditioner, and television. In these situations, the demand for power increases quickly. Some utilities enter long-term purchase agreements to own power reserves to handle these intermittent spikes, but this approach can lead to unnecessary capacity, driving up costs.

Peterson Power Systems Inc.’s customers receive expert consultation on design, installation and maintenance of power plants designed for utility applications.

Benefits from utility gas generator applications include:

  • Reduced energy costs
  • Efficient use of resources
  • Increased revenue opportunities

Power Solutions for Utilities: How They Work

Baseload generator set power plants can range from a few megawatts (MW) for a small island to over 100 MW for larger cities. These power plants can be built with many 2 to 6 MW size class generators operating in parallel as a central source of electricity for the local electric grid.

Typical peaking power plant solutions operate in the 2 to 50 MW range, from 100 to 3,000 hours per year. Most 100-hour-per-year plants are diesel-fueled and cover a super peak, while natural-gas-fueled power plant economics favor higher hour applications and longer duration peak demand.

Utility-grade paralleling switchgear is used to operate multiple generator sets together and in parallel with the main utility grid. In open power markets, the power produced from these generators during the peak times of day can be dispatched to meet local customers' needs or sold in open, real-time markets at the spot price for a profit.

Today’s utility operations can benefit greatly from the flexibility to deploy distributed generating resources. Natural-gas-fueled generator sets fill that role admirably. When deployed strategically, they provide economic and reliability benefits to the utility and customers alike, while enabling utilities to differentiate their services and gain a stronger position in competitive markets.