WINTER 2017 RUNREADY ™ 2 Backup Plan PICKING UP Businesses weather Hurricane Harvey with Cat® Rental Power STEAM 5 Beef it Up Snack maker converts wastewater to energy with District energy system increases Cat CG132-08 gas genset efficiency with Cat® G3516s Read the story: 9 Sustainable Approach 12 Caterpillar integrates sustainability in its core business model 10 Always Prepared Truck stop chain is ready for natural disasters 12 Heat Wave Leading district energy system adds CHP to the mix www.toromontpowersystems.com BACKUP PLAN BUSINESSES WEATHER HURRICANE HARVEY WITH CAT® RENTAL POWER RunReady™ is published by High Velocity Communications Inc. on behalf of your Cat® Dealer. Publisher, Mark Sell • Editorial Director, John Rondy • Senior Art Director, Eric Valk • Director of Client Services, Kelly Pemper. Every attempt has been made to ensure specifications are accurate. Because specifications are subject to change without notice, check with us, your Cat Dealer, for the latest information. Some photography provided courtesy of Caterpillar Inc. CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow,” and the POWER EDGE trade dress, BUILT FOR IT as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission. High Velocity Communications Inc., 1720 Dolphin Drive, Suite D, Waukesha, WI 53186-1489. RunReady is a trademark of High Velocity Communications Inc. Phone 262.544.6600. Please submit address corrections and changes via email to: [email protected]. ©2017 High Velocity Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Volume 8, Number 4. 2 RUNREADY ISSUE NUMBER 32 Hurricane Harvey caused mass destruction when it hit the Texas Gulf Coast companies have contingency plans in place in preparation for a storm. on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph near “We do hurricane plans down here in Rockport, Texas. Then, Harvey meandered around southern Texas for days Texas and on the Gulf Coast, so many H of our customers, particularly in the as a weakening hurricane and tropical storm, dropping 40-61 inches of oil and gas industry, have emergency plans in place.” Milligan said. “When rainfall in southeast Texas and creating catastrophic flooding in the greater it arrives in the Gulf, they start to make Houston area. some preparations. So we had some plans in place already with a number of customers.” All told, the storm caused 82 deaths hand tickets—load yourself, come back But not everyone has a backup and an estimated $180 billion in later and pay us because we didn’t have generator or a contingency plan in place. damage. An estimated 13 million people any credit card processing capabilities The reality is, the majority of businesses were affected, with 135,000 homes and people couldn’t get cash. We wrote are in a race against time to find a damaged or destroyed, and up to a it down, and people took what they generator and keep the power on after a million cars affected by the flooding. needed. storm hits. Harvey caused significant disruption “But the big thing was getting power Northeast of Corpus Christi, a to the electrical grid of south Texas, up here, and that’s where Holt Power grocery store in the small community of the Energy Information Administration Systems came in and helped us immensely, Woodsboro was in the eye of the storm. (EIA) reported, knocking out power to providing a rental generator set so we “It was scary, we could hear the ceiling hundreds of thousands of residents for an could get going again.” joists popping in the roof,” said Cody extended period. Tuttle, of Tuttle’s Grocery & Market. At the storm’s peak, outages affected Contingency plan “We had plywood over the plate glass more than 10,000 MW of capacity, and Businesses that secured Cat® Rental windows in the front, but they were a substantial number of transmission Power before the storm not only helped flexing back and forth with the pressure and distribution lines were downed. EIA themselves, but were able to help others from the storm. It was a long, long night.” reported the outages were mostly caused in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Tuttle made 60 phone calls before by rain or flooding, affecting generator Scott Milligan, president of Energy he was finally able to secure a rental fuel supplies, outages of transmission Rental Solutions (ERS), a Cat dealer infrastructure and personnel unable to in Houston, says that many oil and gas Continued on page 4 reach the generating facilities. Most of the transmission line outages, including six 345 kV lines and more than two hundred 69 kV–138 kV lines, were in the immediate area along the Gulf Coast where the hurricane made landfall. BACKUP PLAN As ground zero for Hurricane Harvey, the coastal communities of Rockport and neighboring Fulton received some of the worst wind and storm surge damage from the Category 4 storm. “It was amazing the stuff that was down and the destruction to the trailer homes and the other stuff that wasn’t tied down,” said Brian Brock, sales manager for Builder’s First Source, a lumberyard in Rockport. “It was just an ugly storm. It was very concentrated. “We were hit really hard and had no power, no water and no gas to start back up,” Brock recalls. “So we went back Junior Medrano and Rene Sanchez of Almeda-Genoa Constructors inspect a rental power to the old school method by issuing generator set provided by ERS Cat. WINTER 2017 RUNREADY 3 generator set through Holt Cat. With the with Almeda-Genoa Constructors, a said sales manager Greg Gunn. “It was help of a local electrical contractor, Tuttle joint venture building the toll road really nice to be able to get up and Market disconnected from the grid a day on the south end of Houston. “We going and have power, even though before Harvey hit, and ran continuously were ready to go. So if anything bad businesses around here didn’t get the on generator power through the storm and happened, which it did, we had backup power turned back on for another four for twelve days altogether. ready. Even our primary generators or five days. “With Caterpillar’s help, we were never failed us. “Because we had power from our Cat basically the only one in the county that “ERS Cat did help us out,” Medrano rental generator, we were actually able was really prepared for this,” said owner said. “They had one of their guys come to produce and store ice and different Stanley Tuttle. “I’ve been thinking about in here and just go ahead and run all the things here,” Gunn said. “We ended up buying a generator for several years, wiring, and it was pretty much plug and serving as a donation drop for some of but just never made the investment. play. All we had to do was just make the victims who were affected by the “But I knew that I better have some the phone call, and ERS took care of hurricane. backup power if I wanted to avoid losing everything else.” thousands of dollars of inventory.” Continued operation of a batch Storm preparedness In the wake of the storm, nothing was plant is very important to the 288 With the intensity and frequency of open in Refugio County. Gas stations project, as day in and day out, concrete tropical storms in 2017, businesses are Stanley Tuttle rethinking their storm preparedness “WITH CATERPILLAR’S HELP, we were basically plans. the only ones in the county that were really “We have protocol on what to do before a disaster hits, and that’s PREPARED FOR THIS.” protecting the store and doing certain were left in ruins, while fast food things like moving vehicles,” Gunn restaurants were destroyed. STANLEY TUTTLE says. “But one thing that really needs to “That Saturday afternoon, we were Owner be addressed is having power ready to “ Tuttle’s Grocery & Market able to open up and people who went go, having a contract in place, so we’re without electricity for 18 to 20 hours on standby and have a relationship with were able to come here for lunchmeat, is constantly being delivered to the a company that can provide a rental bread, water and other foodstuffs,” Cody jobsite, notes Rene Sanchez, assistant generator if a storm is going to hit— Tuttle recalls. “We were the only store equipment manager with Almeda-Genoa because we forget how much we need open in the whole county. We had lines Constructors. the power.” down both aisles.” “For the duration of the hurricane, the Next time a hurricane or tropical batch plant never went down because storm hits, Stanley Tuttle plans to be Transportation planning of the support of the Cat generators,” ready. He knows he was fortunate to Contractors working on the $815 Sanchez said. “And neither did our work have rental power at the ready this time million State Highway 288 toll road trailer compound.” around, both to save inventory and serve expansion in Houston utilize large office In Victoria, Texas, auto dealer Mac as an emergency food source. trailers that are not connected to the Haik Ford was able to resume selling “Immediately after the storm, people power grid. cars the Thursday after the storm. here were in dire need,” he says. “And “We have a primary and a backup “A lot of people needed some without Holt Cat’s help, we wouldn’t generator, so we were prepared,” said vehicles to get back going, so we were have been able to help the community Junior Medrano, an equipment foreman very fortunate to be able to help them,” the way we did.” 4 RUNREADY ISSUE NUMBER 32 CUSTOMERFEATURE SNACK MAKER CONVERTS WASTEWATER TO ENERGY s a byproduct from making beef levels of total suspended solids (TSS) and jerky and other pickled products, biological oxygen demand (BOD).