GE Energy Connections Engine Systems Inc. Customer Story

GE Energy Connections
ESI Relies on GE Controls
to Help Customers Modernize
Power Generation Systems
Engine Systems, Inc. (ESI) is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM),
custom fabricator and packager that builds diesel generator units to meet
their customers’ requirements. Most of ESI’s business results from being
an authorized distributor for Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD). Based in Rocky
Mount, N.C. and a division of Kirby Corporation, ESI offers a complete
range of services, including design engineering, product assembly,
field installation, quality assurance and control, system testing,
maintenance contracts, parts, service, and re-manufacturing.

EMD diesel generator sets built by ESI are used for
peaking, continuous, or standby power in utilities, hospitals,
military, mining, and petroleum exploration as well as in
the telecommunications and nuclear power industries.
In addition to installing new equipment, ESI helps customers
modernize their existing diesel generator sets. “We typically
go into a site with existing EMD gensets installed in the 1960s
and ’70s,” says Wayne Dills, ESI Project Engineer. “We remove
relay-based analog controls and replace them with new PLCs,
distributed I/O, new electronic governors, HMIs, and remote
control capabilities. We not only automate, so it takes fewer
operators and less intervention, but we also update control
systems to make them more reliable,” he says.
Examples include power plant modernization projects on
several major U.S. military bases overseas. On a U.S. naval
base, ESI upgraded the control system for the power plant
and 9 EMD gensets with PACSystems* RX3i controllers.
They performed similar work at another naval base, supplying
new controls and switchgear for that 4-generator system.
ESI also installed redundant workstations running CIMPLICITY
HMI/SCADA software at both bases. “By creating independent
workstations, if one goes down, the other is ready to go,”
Dills says.
“By creating independent
workstations, if one goes down,
the other is ready to go.”
Wayne Dills,
ESI Project Engineer

The GE Advantage
On modernization projects, ESI prefers GE controls because
they are both competitively priced and have proven to be
very reliable. “We have a comfort level because we have so
much history with GE,” Dills says. “We go all the way back to
GE Series 6 PLCs.” Today when ESI installs controllers, it’s
usually GE’s PACSystems RX3i controller. “We typically find
the GE controls to be competitively priced and user friendly,”
Dills says. “In the market we’re in, people are willing to pay
for reliability. We’re not the cheapest out there, but
customers come to us because they want a system that
works every time. And we have high confidence in
GE products.”
Dills also likes the easy migration path and GE’s superior
redundancy capabilities. ”I look forward to going back to
sites with GE Series* 90-30 controllers and replacing them
with PACSystems RX3i. It’s easier to set up, and the
redundancy is so seamless.”
GE’s high availability control solution relies on a ring topology
and PROFINET, the leading open industrial standard.
Traditional network redundancy schemes require two
duplicate parallel networks to achieve a reliable backup
connection to each node on the network. GE Media
Redundancy Protocol (MRP) with PROFINET provides each
node on the network with a backup physical connection to
every other node on the network, but in a much more costeffective
way: a ring topology.
With a ring topology, if there is a failure or delay on the line,
the data is quickly rerouted. And PROFINET with MRP
redundancy doesn’t require external switches and converters,
which reduces system complexity and cost.
Open communication is another benefit of GE controls.
“It’s important to our customers that GE controls can talk
to I/O and other equipment from other manufacturers,”
Dills says. “This is especially critical for utilities.”
“It’s important to our customers
that GE controls can talk to I/O
and other equipment from other
manufacturers....This is especially
critical for utilities.”
Wayne Dills,
ESI Project Engineer
PACSystems RX3i

Helping NCEMC Customers Weather the Storm
Oftentimes ESI is called upon to modernize a system that
they had installed decades before, as with North Carolina
Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC). NECMC is one
of the largest generation and transmission cooperatives in
the nation. ESI recently updated the controls on two peak
generation plants on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, one at
Buxton and another on Ocracoke Island, both built in 1989.
“We originally supplied the generators, control systems,
and switchgear when they were built,” Dills says. ESI had
since been servicing the generators and control system,
and bid on the upgrade project.
“NCEMC selected us because they have confidence in us,”
Dills says. ESI pulled out all of the original GE Series 6
controls, GE Genius* I/O and GE CIMPLICITY HMI and
replaced them with redundant PACSystems RX3i PLCs for
plant level control and new IPC touch screens running
redundant CIMPLICITY. They also installed PACSystems RX3i
controllers for each generator at both locations—one in
Buxton with five engines and one in Ocracoke.
Normally all of the power to Hatteras Island (where the
Buxton plant is located) and Ocracoke Island comes down
from Nags Head, across the 2.7-mile-long Oregon Inlet Bridge.
“If a storm damages the power line, it used to be that Hatteras
Island and Ocracoke Island didn’t have power until the line
was fixed. Now those two generator stations can run all of
the critical loads south of the bridge,” Dills says.
In addition, they were able to tie the Ocracoke and Buxton
HMIs together. This was critical based on the barrier island
location of both installations, where storms can knock out
power for days. Instead of having an operator in each location,
now one operator can run both stations.
Given the critical nature of the two Outer Banks generator
facilities, it was crucial that they remain operational during
the controls upgrade. “We designed the controls so we
could simply take out an existing subpanel and put in a new
subpanel through a unit-by-unit upgrade. The other units
were still operational if an emergency were to occur. It takes
a little more effort than shutting the whole place down, but it
was important to ensure uninterrupted power to cooperative
members on the island,” Dills says.
Given the critical nature of the
two Outer Banks generator
facilities, it was crucial that
they remain operational
during the controls upgrade.

Service After the Sale
In much the same way that ESI helps their customers,
GE has also helped ESI overcome challenges when
they arise.
During a naval base upgrade project, ESI faced a significant
problem—getting the PACSystems RX3i controller to talk
to protective relays and communication processors from
another manufacturer. “GE developed and tested a new DNP
module [now a standard GE product] to meet our customer’s
need,” Dills says. “And they even flew an engineer down to
solve the problem and help get the project running.”
GE Energy Connections
Automation & Controls
2500 Austin Dr
Charlottesville, VA 22911
1-800-433-2682 or 1-434-978-5100
www.geautomation.com
© 2016 General Electric. The GE brand and logo are trademarks of General Electric. *Trademark of General Electric.
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