Safety & Security Are our #1 Priorities

Having a power outage is not uncommon in schools, colleges and university campuses. When it happens, fire alarms, security systems, phones, computer networks and emergency lighting go off and learning is disrupted and in some cases, students are put at risk.

Foley Power Solutions Brochure

Teacher instructing classroom of students

You Won't Have To Be Afraid of the Dark

You’re trusted to power the places people study and to do it cost-effectively. Selecting a distributed generation system to provide power to a school, college or university on a permanent or temporary basis can be a tough decision to make. Foley Power Solutions is here to help.

We even offer exhaust emissions for highly regulated emission environments, and utility grade Cat® paralleling switchgear so you can sell excess electricity to your local grid. Run uninterrupted power and reduce operating expenses with a Cat combined heat and power (CHP) system to simultaneously provide electricity for electrical loads and recover heat to warm facilities.

Our generators offer world-class fuel efficiency and low life-cycle costs. Caterpillar is providing power to meet your demands and to help you cut costs with cogeneration technology so you can focus on your institution.

DIESEL GENERATORS

GAS GENERATORS

MOBILE GENERATORS

MICROGRIDS

Cat Power Solutions Provide 100% Of Campus Power To A Major University

When Brock unveiled the new home of its Environmental Research Sustainability Center in a restored 19th-century farm cottage last year, it furthered efforts to produce world-class research while educating students in environmental sustainability. The school offers an academic minor, as well as a graduate program that aims to facilitate society’s transition towards sustainability.

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Combined Heat & Power (CHP), Distributed Generation & Standby Power Explained

Reduced Operating Costs

Many schools, colleges, and universities can reduce operating costs by implementing a Cat® combined heat and power (CHP) system (also known as cogeneration) using clean pipeline natural gas as a fuel source. Cat gas generator sets can simultaneously provide power for electrical loads and heat energy for a facility's thermal requirements. Benefits from CHP projects include:

Energy efficiency up to 90%
Reduced energy costs versus separate heat and electrical generation systems
Reduced emissions
Leadership in energy and environmental design
(LEED) certification via energy efficiency credits
Where the capture and use of waste heat is not viable, your facility may still benefit financially via distributed generation (DG), where electricity is simply produced locally or via a natural gas fueled emergency standby power plant.

This is especially true when any of the following apply:

The local electric grid is unreliable
Natural gas is an inexpensive alternative to grid electricity
Reduced emissions versus separate heat and electrical generation systems
Generators can be applied during peak times of day to avoid high electrical utility demand charges (also known as peak shaving)

How CHP Works

Any Cat natural gas fueled engine can be configured for applications involving heat recovery. The engine drives a Cat generator to produce electricity, while jacket water and/or exhaust cooling circuits are fed through heat exchangers to transfer the waste heat from the engine to a hot water or steam circuit. That hot water or steam can then be effectively used for the facility's process or HVAC requirements, including facility cooling when implementing an absorption or adsorption chiller (known also as trigeneration).

Caterpillar provides customized CHP packages, including the required mechanical equipment and controls to capture and transfer the engine thermal energy to your facility. Caterpillar also offers:

Natural gas fuel pressure regulation and safeties
Exhaust emissions aftertreatment for highly regulated emission environments
Utility grade paralleling switchgear to run multiple generators together or to export energy to the local electric grid
The total energy cost savings of such systems can more than offset the total owning and operating costs, delivering a payback in as little as two to three years, depending on local energy pricing and policies.

How Distributed Generation and Standby Power Work: When power is produced locally without heat recovery from the engine, Caterpillar provides radiators to provide proper cooling to the engine jacket water, engine oil, and aftercooler water circuits. Cat paralleling switchgear allows generators to operate with one another or in conjunction with a local utility power source.
Although diesel fueled emergency power systems will always be the solution of choice for life safety emergency standby systems, there has been an increasing move toward natural gas fueled standby power systems in recent years. Typically installed with an automatic transfer switch (ATS) or paralleling switchgear control for multiple generators, these systems sense when a utility outage occurs and automatically start the backup power system and transfer power to the emergency source. When normal grid power returns, the control system automatically switches back and shuts down the emergency generator.

SHAWNEE HEIGHTS SCHOOL DISTRICT BACKS UP DATA CENTER

Shawnee Heights USD 450 is a unified suburban school district located in southeastern Shawnee County, Kansas. In 2020, they determined that the school district needed to have a more robust source of backup power which led them to consult with Foley Power Solutions.

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Agriculture Videos

Cat® Generator Sets | Heat and Power Solutions for Greenhouses

2:03

Combined heat and power (CHP) systems provide a profitable and sustainable solution for greenhouses. By generating thermal energy and electrical energy simultaneously, a CHP system can yield a fuel efficiency rate over 90% versus the typical boiler efficiency of 40-50%.

Buck Creek Farm - Aerial

1:42

Shocklee is a contract farmer for a national food company, raising nearly 500,000 chickens annually at his facility 20 minutes south of Owensboro, KY. “Solar energy appealed to me,” Shocklee says. “Not only is it a convenient form of renewable energy, but I saw it as a way to insulate me from future price increases.”

Caterpillar Powers Idaho Dairy with Renewable Biogas Energy

4:30

With 60,000 cows and 13 facilities, Bettencourt Dairies is one of the largest dairy farm operations in Idaho. Bettencourt Dairies worked with Caterpillar to improve air quality, reduce carbon emissions, and generate profitable renewable energy via Idaho's largest dairy waste-to-energy project to date.