Perhaps less mysterious than the fare Julie Andrews recalled for her rapt audience in The Sound Of Music—doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles—but for certain, they stand high on my personal list of favorite things.

Little wonder, then, I'm still stoked following my return from Lafayette, Indiana, where Caterpillar's Large Engines Center unveiled its C175 diesel engine, an all new and radically redesigned electrical power generating system; one that shows the tremendous advances that have taken place in engine technology in the years since the introduction of its 3500- and 3600-series power plants.

The occasion was the company's public introduction of the machinery it expects to take it well into the future, and for certain we will have a lot to say about it over time, following initial delivery of its production version, scheduled for early 2007. As a quick-and-dirty snapshot, the engine—diesel in the beginning—will be released in three versions: 12-,16-, and 20-cylinders, delivering from 2.0 to 4.5 MW.

Things That Work Right, Straight From the Box
I've long felt that cost aside, the complications associated with dealing with bits and pieces are a barrier to many considering the purchase of what is admittedly a pricey assortment of hardware and software. That in its principal role as backup to what is in nearly all respects an excellent and remarkably reliable electrical grid system, it, like the wide range of insurance products needed protect a company from catastrophic loss, does little if anything, to improve one's bottom line.  Thus it is little wonder that the added complexities in making dissimilar elements produce a reliable whole are often enough to discourage a potential standby power customer from proceeding. That said, many if not most who've invested in standby power have done so in the mix-and-match mode, and it can be argued that there may be some advantages to this approach.  But for many the task can be daunting.  Thus, Caterpillar's C 175, which while it can and will see use in a variety of tasks and configurations, is well suited—perhaps optimized—to the turnkey role where it can be seamlessly mated to companion components…a resounding validation of the package concept we've championed on these pages in the past.

Footprints in the Sand
While no doubt the major focus will be the engine's capital costs and operational factors—emissions, specific fuel consumption, reliability, and maintenance and servicing characteristics—lurking behind these is an aspect deserving of special note … the engine's energy density. While it is a little hard to think of something as gigantic as a fully configured genset—engine, generator, transformer, switchgear, and UPS—as svelte, relative to its predecessors the C175 could be the poster child for the home gym advertisements much in evidence these days. Compared to the Cat 3608 (8-cylinder), the C175-16 engine comes in at less than half the weight and a 20% smaller footprint, features of significance in many onsite applications.

Oops
My visit was an eye-opening experience, not just for my appreciation of the host's equipment and vision of the future, but for those of the industry as a whole. But astonishingly, turbos and camshafts notwithstanding, the most indelible impression I left Lafayette with was the belief that no matter whose system we're talking about, no matter what activities it's there to protect, no standby power unit is complete without a fully functional and unquestionably reliable UPS module as an integral part of the package ... an odd reaction that I'll have to sort through between now and the next issue.

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DE - March/April 2006