PowerSource Vol 2, 2009 - JOHN DEERE POWER SYSTEMS - #9

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Heat and electrical energies are treasured and valuable resources in this remote location, and Horizon Marine is making sure none of it goes to waste. That’s why the company, located in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, looked to Frontier Power Systems of Delta, British Columbia, to design and build the three-engine paralleled gen-set unit. The system features an innovative heat-recovery system that makes use of excess heat from the engines to help heat the camp. “It was always a vision to put heat recovery on the Arctic Star,” explains Willie Moore, the company’s vice president of northern operations. “I gave Frontier Power a broad set of requirements, and they sourced the heat-recovery equipment, engineered the drawings, and performed the installation and start up. They actually bent over backwards to get the gen-sets delivered in a timely fashion.” At the heart of the system are three 150-kW (270 hp) gen-sets powered by PowerTech 6081A engines. Frontier Power paralleled the gen-sets and installed automatic controls so that the gen-sets would start up and shut down individually, catering to the varying electrical loads of the camp. Making use of jacket water heat exchangers, heat normally rejected to the coolant from the engines is recovered and passed through another heat exchanger in the exhaust gas flow. This recovered heat is then piped and dispersed throughout the camp. Not only has the system proved to be heat efficient, it’s proven to be cost efficient, too. “It would be fair to say that the new system lowered our fuel costs by a third,” says Willie. Previously, the camp was powered to two independent 400-kW gen-sets with no heat-recovery system. “We wanted more electrical capacity and the power redundancy, and we got it,” says Willie. “We also wanted highly reliable engines with longevity, backed by a service center that stocks parts and has good response time — and we found that with John Deere and Frontier Power.” C O V E R S TO RY PowerSource 9 Emissions Cert. Tier 1 Engine Model 6081AF001 Displacement 8.1L Rated Power 201 kW (270 hp) @ 1800 rpm (prime) Cylinders 6 Aspiration Aftercooled Distributor Frontier Power Products Delta, British Columbia (604) 946-5531 www.frontierpower.com Three 150-kW gen-sets not only supply electricity to the camp barge, but also supplemental heat through an innovative heat-recovery system. The Arctic Star sits frozen in ice on the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories.